Monthly Archives: September 2011

A year or three after 9/11, I happened upon a couple of websites that archived video from that world-alerting day — mostly the live TV news coverage. I downloaded it all to my hard drive and every now and then, I watch an hour so of it…usually commencing with the first report of the first plane having hit.

For a while, I didn't understand why I was doing this. No particular event in the news seemed to trigger my visits. Just all of a sudden, I'd feel like I wanted to go to that directory and watch some 9/11 news coverage. But I think I eventually figured out what I was doing and why. I'm trying to put it all in a little more perspective, examining it all in light of what we know now and how we feel. On September 11, an oft-heard phrase was "Nothing will ever be the same again." I didn't buy that then. I mean, in one sense "nothing will ever be the same again" after the newest champ is crowned on American Idol. But in the sense that we meant that dire pronouncement on 9/11, I think we were wrong. A lot of things we didn't think would ever be the same again are the same as they ever were. Alas, this includes some of the mistakes…but I think even the most optimistic among us expected more terrorism than we've had the last ten years.

The news video of 9/11/01 still has the power to shock and enrage, and I'm sure it always will. It should. But I find that each time I take myself back to it, the horror and anger are a little different. For me, at least, they're more reasoned and less visceral. Watching it as it happened, we knew it was the start of something bad but we weren't sure what or how bad. Would there be an attack like that every day or every week from now on? Was this the opening salvo of World War III? Would nuclear weapons be detonated somewhere before the week was out? We just couldn't know…and that was one of the most chilling aspects of 9/11. Today, of course, we know all that could happen tomorrow…but on 9/11, it seemed highly possible that some of that was but hours or days away. We certainly know that we'd have ten years of a different kind of destruction in this country. The self-inflicted kind.

So that's why I watch the old news clips, I guess. I like that my attitude about them is moving from raw instincts to reported facts. I have a different slant on it all with a different mode of reaction and it's no longer like watching a horror movie for me. It's tragic but it's also more of a learning experience.

You can watch any and all of the specials tomorrow — there are thousands of them — or you can make your own. Here's a link to an online archive of news footage from that day. If I were you, I'd pick out the channel I first turned on when I heard about the "accident" and watch the same coverage. You might be surprised at how different it all seems now in some ways…and how it doesn't in others.

I checked this person out and she's anonymous (to you, not me) but legit…

Bully for your piece about cancelling one's online subscription to get a cheaper rate. I work in the Subscriber Retention division of a big online company. This is not an office. It's just a headset attached to my home computer but when you try to cancel your subscription to our service, your call is routed to me and it's my job to talk you out of it. I have a series of speeches on my monitor which were written for us. It says on the top not to use them verbatim but to paraphrase and put them into our own words.

The first line of attack is to act puzzled and hurt. Why would you leave us? What have we done wrong? Don't you realize how many people love our service? You would be amazed that this works with some people. They don't want to hurt my feelings so they stay with us.

If they mention the price, I am then to go to Speech 2, Speech 3 or Speech 4. Each comes with a lower rate. Very few people ever hear Speech 4. If there's any chance of getting them to not cancel, they grab the offer with Speech 2. If not, they say so firmly that they want out that it ends there. They don't even want to hear another offer.

Speech 3 is interesting because while it involves a lower rate than Speech 2, it also commits you to spend more money with us by extending you for an additional two years. Some people say they aren't getting enough out of our service to warrant what they're paying but they then sign on for two more years for 35% off.

For the few people who make it as far as Speech 4, it's one year at about 60% off and I'm allowed to throw in a few extra months. I always make this sound like it's something I'm not supposed to offer but since the caller seems like a nice person, I'm going to risk getting in trouble with my boss and offer something I shouldn't. Sometimes, the person who calls is my boss or is working for my boss. They make such calls from time to time to check up on us and see how we're doing our jobs. One time, my employer told me I had him convinced that I was breaking the rules and might get fired to offer him the 60% off.

I did this for another company before. That was a sex-oriented site with many photos of nude women. We only had three speeches there and the discounts if you went all the way weren't that great. But in Speech 3, I told the caller (a man, of course) that I was hoping he could at least continue to subscribe to the site until my pictures were posted. I am the last person you would ever want to see naked and if I ever did take such photos and they put them up, everyone would instantly cancel at once. However, I have a good sexy voice and I sound like I'm in my twenties (I'm 48) and I told the callers I would soon be on the site under the name Heather. A lot of them would decide to stick around for that. Some of them would even ask what I was wearing at that moment.

My pal Joe Brancatelli, who operates the best damn travel site on the web, suggests one should never set up a subscription to auto-renew and if possible, should pay by check instead of credit card. That shifts the game. If you're auto-renewing, they've got you and don't have to offer you any better deal. If they have to sell you again each year, they'll start bombarding you with special offers and better rates. Probably good advice. Anyway, my thanks to "Heather" for the above message and I'm sorry she didn't tell me what she had on when she wrote it. I'm guessing the radio.

Speaking of the Muppets: Did you ever wonder how they did that scene in The Great Muppet Caper when Kermit, Fozzie, Gonzo and all the others are riding around on bicycles? Well, here's how.

I subscribe to about two dozen different websites and online services. A few weeks ago when I decided to cancel one, they offered me an unadvertised lower rate to get me to stay. This intrigued me and I decided to see what would happen if I tried cancelling the others. This morning, I tried cancelling ten of them with the following result.

Seven of the ten offered me a better rate for the exact same access. These included all four where you can't cancel online but have to phone an 800 number. It makes one suspect that the reason they do that is because they want the chance to have a human being talk you out of cancellation by offering you a special deal. I couldn't help but note that the folks on the end of those four calls were all very nice, friendly talkers who acted like I was disappointing them by wanting to leave, treating me like a member of the family they'd hate to see go.

In the other three cases where I was offered a better rate to stay, the deal came with just a click or two. I clicked on the link to cancel my subscription and up came a better price to keep me around.

I opted to not cancel any of the seven subscriptions. But just by starting the process, I wound up saving myself around $50 a month. Of the three that didn't offer me a lower price, I cancelled one. I guess in light of the lowered costs on the others, it didn't seem like it was worth the money any longer.

Whether you'll have the same rate of success, I can't say. It will probably depend on whether the rate you're now paying for a given site is the lowest they ever offer or if since you subscribed, they've introduced a lower fee to snag new subscribers. Some of the lower prices I was offered are advertised deals but some aren't.

So that's what happened with ten of my online subscriptions. When I get the time, I'm going to try cancelling the other ones to see what happens. I'll bet I save at least another fifty smackers.

A Tweet this morning from one of my favorite political writers, Eric Boehlert…

Imagine if in 1983 the Dems' pol strategy was to keep the country in recession in order to make sure Reagan wasn't elected? #unAmerican

Our pal Will Harris did a nice interview with Mel Brooks you might want to read. One tiny quibble: Brooks says that when he was writing for Your Show of Shows, he first saw Richard Pryor performing in New York. Your Show of Shows went off the air in 1954 when Richard Pryor was 14 years old. All the bios of Pryor (and the man's autobiography) say he moved to New York and started performing there in 1963. But it's a good conversation, well worth your time.

Last December, as reported here, Carolyn and I went to a Writers Bloc event that was quite wonderful, even if it didn't turn out to be precisely what was advertised. What was advertised was Mel Brooks interviewing Dick Cavett about the latter's then-new book. What it turned into (not that anyone was complaining) was an evening of the two men interviewing each other in a ratio that skewed heavily in Mel's favor. I'm guessing he did about 80% of the talking.

And now it's changed form again. It's been cut down to a one-hour HBO special called Mel Brooks and Dick Cavett Together Again and it debuts tonight. Depending on how expertly it was edited, it could be quite wonderful.