On Sat, 13 Jan 2001, Paul Braun wrote: Of course not, who in Dilbertland would ever want to do something that sensible? Wow, you must have read my mind; I find these things senseless too. Sometimes, I really think that some of the marketing goons get their minds stuck in some sort of weird la-la land resulting from too strong an infusion of the world of Dilbert in their dreams, which they can't separate from reality. Here in Baltimore, when one called the telephone company, one called C&P Telephone, which was part of the Bell System... that became Bell Atlantic - ok, still not too confusing. Then, this past year, the name changed to Verizon. How the heck does anyone associate this, insipid sounding, name, Verizon, with telephones? Yes, the same people who now make us dial a 10 digit number for all local telephone calls, which includes the area code, because they thought that it would be too much of a pain for businesses, etc. to have to use a separate area code for modems, pagers and cell phones. Never mind that the seven-digit number was decided upon for a scientific/psychological reason, as seven digits are the most that the average person can easily remember. Of course, consider that Baltimore Gas and Electric decided to modernize its image, and took the "and" out of its name; it's no longer BG&E as it's been known for many decades, but BGE. No one at BGE, however, can explain to me what "gas electric" is... yes, I know what gas and electric are, but, what's this new product called gas electric? No problem. Just do like the people in their marketing departments do when they can't spell a name. Scribble something illegible on a piece of paper, and hand it to the right person in management, then declare that a marketing study has come up with a new company name. Of course, try using that same logic when writing them checks to pay your bills, and you'll eventually get your service cut off. I'll tell you when. About the same time that idiots who never took a TV set, car engine or lock apart, who never built a radio or hot-rodded an engine, who never played with erector sets and real hammers and nails, and soldering irons, as children, began enrolling in college as engineering majrs and got hired by MBAs, (Meaningless But Arrogant) who are, no doubt, hired because the marketing department says that MBAs are good for the company's image, and the MBAs hire marketing people with low IQs, like everyone else, are't paid to think, but to "fit in" with the company's "culture" and will be good little corporate 'droids. You know, I think I've got it! Someone must have told some CEOs that it's safer to smoke one-hundred dollar bills than tobacco products, and some must have believed it. Who wants to volunteer to roll some big bills and smoke them while undergoing psychological evaluation so that we can verify this hypothesis? NOTE: I happen to know a couple of past and present marketing executives who are very sensible and intelligent people, and mean no offense to them by this. I also went to college with some marketing majors who were very sensible and had some good common sense... of course, I also went to college with some of them who, while they were nice people, didn't quite understand the concept of "reality." -- Copyright (C) 2000 R. D. Davis "The best way to gain a true understanding of All Rights Reserved Wile E. Coyote on the Roadrunner cartoons is to rdd(a)perqlogic.com 410-744-4900 fly, head-first, off a horse into something like http://www.perqlogic.com/rdd a fence or a tree; trust me, this works." --RDD