Boys with guns on the train

In Switzerland, Sundays and Fridays are the big train-travel days for soldiers. Switzerland has nearly a half a million men (boys, really) on active duty. Sunday nights, they report for duty. Fridays, they go home. They may spend weeks at a time, stationed at their barracks in Swiss cities and towns, but Sundays and Fridays are the changeover days. Sometimes they're in their fatigues, and other times, they're in dress uniform. I suppose it depends on where they're stationed and what they're slated to be doing that week.

But most of them carry their guns slung across their backs. Sturmgewehr 90s, mostly, a 5.56x45mm assault rifle similar to the US M-16, only much better-made (and much more expensive). They all have folding stocks, to make them more compact, especially when traveling on crowded Swiss trains. No magazines were in evidence, mainly because since a 2007 law passed by the socialists in parliament, soldiers are not allowed to keep government-issued ammunition at home. They have to report to an armory during a declared emergency to fetch their ammunition.

No one gives them a second glance on the trains, or in the stations. The Swiss know that guns help keep them safe, and that these boys are doing a job for them.

I admire that in a culture.

A nice letter from the CEO of Continental Airlines

Back in March, my Continental flight was delayed, meaning that I would miss my connecting flight to get to Chicago. A nice Continental employee named Franky worked for 45 minutes to reroute me on Delta, using some arcane airline wizardry to get me a ticket on a Delta flight that was allegedly full. It worked, much to the Delta agents' amazement, when they tried to deny me a seat, and I told them I had a ticket. They couldn't figure out how that had happened. I just smiled.

So I wrote a nice thank you note to Larry Kellner, CEO of Continental Airlines, telling him how great Franky is, and how they need to pay him more and/or hold him up as an example to other employees. (Never dink around with middle management - when you have a complaint or a commendation, go straight to the top.) I don't often write complaint letters, because my money speaks for me - I make sure I don't spend any more money with a company who screws around with me. But if I have something nice to say, I make sure that I say it, because service industry employees especially need to hear it.

Larry wrote back, thanking me for my letter, and said he'd make sure he shared it with Franky. He signed it himself, it looks like, because the ink trail is irregular, unlike the autopen signatures on a lot of business letters.

That was nice. I wasn't expecting a reply.

Phone etiquette

When I first arrived here and learned to use a "telephone," I was taught that it is polite to identify yourself when you call someone, since they cannot see you using this antiquated equipment. "Hello, this is Marvin. May I please speak to Kqallk?"

I thought everyone else would have been taught the same thing, but no. That's why I have Caller ID on my telephone.

But sometimes it only displays the number, and not the name of the caller, or it helpfully displays a name of "FLORIDA". Not very helpful, actually. But if it's a local area code, I usually pick it up. If it's long-distance, and it's not a number I know, I let the answering machine get it.

So, a FLORIDA caller called us the other day.

"Hi."

"Hello," I said. And, realizing quickly that I was speaking with an uneducated telephone user, I cut to the chase and asked the obvious question, "Who's this?"

"Rodney."

Ah. Rodney. My wife and I speak with Rodney perhaps three times a year. He almost never calls us, so we would not recognize his number. Or his voice. His wife calls us more often than that, but she never identifies herself either.

Human voices are not that distinct, to me, or to my wife. I think it's odd that both Rodney and his wife would simply assume that we would recognize their voices, especially when we don't speak with each other very often (on the phone OR in person). But I think it all goes back to proper education in telephone etiquette. Caller ID or no Caller ID, it's proper and appropriate to identify yourself when you call someone.

I think telephones should have negative feedback devices (such as a 50,000-volt contact plate in the handset) so that users can both administer and receive feedback for inappropriate behavior, such as failing to identify yourself to the person you called.

"Hey, is Marvin there? GAAAAHHHHHH!!!" the caller would scream, as I administer a 50,000-volt reminder through the telephone that he should have identified himself.

This feature would eliminate telephone solicitation almost overnight, I think.

I will have to get a patent.