Are You Smarter Than a Automated Voice Response System?

I, apparently, am not.

Our household has fallen victim to a myriad of cable/internet ills in the last week or so. Finally, I got an "appointment" with the cable company. Any of you who have required repairs of any kind on your house understand that it's not as much an appointment as it as a "window" of time in which you are required to be at home for a minimum of four to eight hours waiting for the repairman, who will inevitably arrive approximately 5 minutes before the window closes, thus allowing you almost four hours to sit (with non-working cable and internet, mind you) and wait. But, I digress.

The repairman came and "fixed" our internet. But the next day it was not working again. At my wits end, I called the cable company to give them a piece of my mind. What I got instead was the friendly Automated Voice Response System lady, or Joan, as I like to call her. I was skeptical of Joan's abilities and not too keen on solving my technological problems with a computer that's slightly hard of hearing. But Joan hooked me by saying that I was going to be on hold anyway, so I may as well give her a try.

Embarassingly enough, Joan fixed my internet problem. And that, my friends, is truly humbling, although I will say that Joan is quite a load smarter than the American Airlines AVR lady (I like to call her Glenda) and has much keener hearing, too. I gotta say she was programmed to be pretty friendly, neighborly even. Maybe I'll call her next time I need a good recipe for chicken salad.