Friday, December 28, 2001

WHAT NEXT, "WHERE'S THE BEEF?": Apparently Verizon is introducing an emergencies-only "wireless phone that can identify a person's calling location and phone number to an emergency call center." Is this not --in 2001, almost 2002-- the beloved panic button (I can't remember what it actually was called) of the "I've FALLEN and I CAN'T GET UP" lady of my youth? Which makes me wonder why they think it'll work now. Maybe they're thinking the spread of cell phones and beepers will make a device that bombed fifteen-or-so years ago palatable to consumers now. (I'm assuming it bombed, I don't remember it having any kind of impact besides the annoying-yet-memorable commercial.) Can't you just put 911 on your speed dial? But this new gizmo transmits location too. I dunno, it just sounds like the return of an Eighties Cultural Icon, and John Hughes movies are the best representatives of that particular species.

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