Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Enough With The Free Checking...
I'm not sure what it's like in other parts of the country, but Los Angeles has been inundated with commercials from banks talking about their "Free Checking!" and how other banks aren't really free. Problem is, all the banks are saying this... that's right, all are saying they have "totally free checking" and poking fun at how all the other banks have hidden fees on their supposedly free checking...
But they all say the same thing... all of them.. so who the heck are they talking about here?
The two most talkative offenders have been Wells Fargo and Washington Mutual... and admittedly, their commercials can be pretty funny... once... but you still keep coming back to the question of who the heck they are making fun of in their ads?
I mean, there really aren't any independent banks anymore... I think we're down to three bank chains totally these days (not including the credit unions) and all of them offer "totally free checking". How about we change the subject and move on to why my interest rate is so pathetic or why WAMU went to the creepy open concept thing that makes you feel like you walked into someone's office by mistake.
I'm just saying... mix it up a bit, huh?
Jeff @ The Gag
But they all say the same thing... all of them.. so who the heck are they talking about here?
The two most talkative offenders have been Wells Fargo and Washington Mutual... and admittedly, their commercials can be pretty funny... once... but you still keep coming back to the question of who the heck they are making fun of in their ads?
I mean, there really aren't any independent banks anymore... I think we're down to three bank chains totally these days (not including the credit unions) and all of them offer "totally free checking". How about we change the subject and move on to why my interest rate is so pathetic or why WAMU went to the creepy open concept thing that makes you feel like you walked into someone's office by mistake.
I'm just saying... mix it up a bit, huh?
Jeff @ The Gag
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Scratch Golfer
Here's something weird I noticed recently... I was watching an interview with one of the old school comedians the other day and near the end of the discussion, after what a great person he was and how much funnier he was in person and so on, he finished up with "and you know the most interesting thing about Jackie Gleason? He was a 'scratch golfer'."
Then it hit me... I've heard that before, and not just about Gleason, but about a lot of the old school comedians... most of the Marx Brothers (especially Harpo), Henny Youngman, Red Buttons, you name it... all of them scratch golfers.
For those of you that don't know, being a 'scratch golfer' means you have a zero handicap, that is, what you shoot is what your score is without getting any strokes removed to level the field with better players. As you can imagine, this is a fairly difficult thing to achieve. To give you an example, Tiger Woods is a + 9.7 handicap, which means even if he pars every hole, he's still over par by 9.7 by the end of the round. Usually, the handicap goes the other way for the weekend variety golfer like myself, which means I'd get to take off so many strokes at the end of the game. Anyway, I'm kind of off the point here...
The question I have here is, were they really all scratch golfers? Or was this an inside joke that will live on forever in interviews? I guess we'll never know... but wouldn't that be a cool trend to start when you're talking about a dear friend? "You know, Jeff was a great guy and a real captain of industry... but his most amazing thing? He was a scratch golfer..."
Jeff @ The Gag
Then it hit me... I've heard that before, and not just about Gleason, but about a lot of the old school comedians... most of the Marx Brothers (especially Harpo), Henny Youngman, Red Buttons, you name it... all of them scratch golfers.
For those of you that don't know, being a 'scratch golfer' means you have a zero handicap, that is, what you shoot is what your score is without getting any strokes removed to level the field with better players. As you can imagine, this is a fairly difficult thing to achieve. To give you an example, Tiger Woods is a + 9.7 handicap, which means even if he pars every hole, he's still over par by 9.7 by the end of the round. Usually, the handicap goes the other way for the weekend variety golfer like myself, which means I'd get to take off so many strokes at the end of the game. Anyway, I'm kind of off the point here...
The question I have here is, were they really all scratch golfers? Or was this an inside joke that will live on forever in interviews? I guess we'll never know... but wouldn't that be a cool trend to start when you're talking about a dear friend? "You know, Jeff was a great guy and a real captain of industry... but his most amazing thing? He was a scratch golfer..."
Jeff @ The Gag
