OffStar

Here's the other story from Laverne (*). If you missed yesterday's, scroll down and read it.

Before I tell you the story, let me give you some background. Laverne is one of the most refreshing and hilarious people I've ever worked with. Ever. She's about my mother's age, but has such a desire and passion to make improvements in her department and to try new things. She's a tremendous encourager to me and others and, on top of that, she has a fantastic self-deprecating and dry humor. I adore her. We all do.

Now, back to the story ...

After the Elmo comment, the discussion about advances in automobile technology continued on our ride back to work from lunch.

Laverne shared with us that a few years ago, she and her husband bought a new Cadillac. She was somewhat unsure about the OnStar system, but decided to set it up for use anyway -- just in case.

When she was programming in the numbers and talking with the OnStar operator the first time, the woman on the other end of the line had difficulty understanding Laverne. It wasn't a bad connection or background noise. It was her accent.

You see, Laverne is from deep East Texas. It doesn't sound all that different from other East Texans I know, but perhaps I've become accustomed to it. The OnStar operator, however, simply could not understand what Laverne was saying.

So the operator called in a linguist to get on the line and help translate what Laverne was saying!

Eventually, Laverne and her husband decided to cancel their OnStar service altogether because the operator was never able to understand what she was saying.

Now come on ... that is hilarious even if you don't know Laverne, right?

(*) Name still changed to protect the innocent, even though she is guilty of being dang funny.