This new announcement accosted me when I boarded the bus Thursday morning, shortly after the heartwarmingly maternal "Please watch your step" that the doors command when they open. It joins the perennial "Attention, passengers. The fare box will only issue passes when the correct fare has been paid." (I always mentally replace this announcement with "Attention passengers. The fare box will only issue passes when DEATH is on the line!" Wouldn't that be so much better?) And of course are the frequent (and frequently absent, when the system is broken) announcements of "Approaching (Street Name). Transfer to (Bus routes)." This announcement is rather funny when I get to ASU, because at the stop I exit at, there are a huge number of transfers. So the announcement goes "Approaching—College Avenue—Transfer to—Route one—Route forty-four—Route fifty-six—Route sixty-two—Route sixty-six—Route seventy-six—Route eighty-one—Route ninety-two...Orbit Circulator." There isn't a recording for every single stop, so they string together a bunch of recordings for each section of the message. It sounds as if the woman announcing pauses every two words to gather her thoughts.
Back to the original pronouncement. It's extremely well enunciated. So much so that I can hear the explosive initial "p" briefly overload the microphone. And do they really have that serious a problem with it? I know occasionally elementary school students will leave items on buses, but that problem diminishes as the students age. On a bus used by the general public, no one should be leaving their personal possessions.
Isn't it great how much amusement I can get out of analyzing such quotidian things as the announcements on buses?
The value of good high schools
34 minutes ago
My sisters, my roommate and I thought that was extremely entertaining and true.
ReplyDeleteBut...we need a dictionary to decipher words such as "quotidian."
What's a quotidian?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, Jakob this stuff is funny. You could make a career making fun of public transportation. I almost peed my pants. Good thing I'm wearing swimming trunks.
Come on. This wasn't that funny. I wouldn't laugh at it. I might laugh at some of the material as one-liners, but only because I ride the bus and know of what it speaks.
ReplyDeleteI meant to comment on this post too, the day my computer hated you or something...
ReplyDeleteI can't remember what I was going to say. Something about how you're supposed to write for your audience, we are your audience and we all love to laugh. So you succeed, so quit you whining. :P