Lists and High Spy

Yesterday I committed to making some headway on the list of businesses and billing sources I have to advise of our upcoming move to change or cancel service. It’s amazing how far the tentacles of modern life intrude with these type transactions. I’m also impressed how much things have changed in the last ten years. As I have written before, this type thing is old hat for me and I established a fairly reliable method of accomplishing this during my series of military moves. I created a list of phone numbers, account numbers, and the new and old addresses/phone numbers and just went down the list.

The changes go both ways. Some of the changes can now be done easily on line without the need to speak with anyone. Mostly though the calls are required and tougher when you have to speak with someone because you are faced with the new generation of dreaded phone trees where you have to make your way through the God awful levels of choices (and hopefully don’t press a wrong button along the way) before reaching that rarest of species – an actual human being. Also the intervening years have created new levels of security where you have to verify who you are. One credit card company had me verify seven different security questions before they believed I was who I said I was. They finally grudgingly acknowledged I was the account holder but when I said I wanted to arrange an address change they asked what my security PIN was. I vaguely remember getting a letter from them six or seven years ago but obviously didn’t recall it. They said they couldn’t do anything but would send a new PIN through the mail. So it goes; of course last night as I was putting something into my briefcase I noticed a timeworn slip of paper in one of the side pockets. Three guesses as to what the paper was.

My wife and I escaped our rapidly encapsulating house to take in our weekly movie on date night. We saw Spy, a comedy starring Melissa McCarthy. It was downright hilarious, one of the funniest films I’ve seen in a very long time. McCarthy is tone perfect as an underutilized CIA employee whom the field agents rely on but who never gets her chance to shine. This changes with an unexpected death as she is thrust into the middle of a nuclear weapons crisis.

I have not laughed this hard or continuously, while sober, in years. It’s obvious McCarthy adlibbed a number of her lines which are the strength of the hilarity; especially when she and Rose Byrne are playing off each other. The women dominate this flick with Allison Janney stealing some scenes as McCarthy’s boss. Jason Statham is outrageously funny doing a perfect send up of himself as a self-important yet ultimately clueless spy whom McCarthy has to rescue. The dialogue is unremittingly profane which I kind of liked, why can’t women swear like dock workers or male action stars. This film may actually be a game changer because it is a female driven action comedy that works on every level. Go see this, as long as your tolerance of the f-word is high, you won’t be disappointed.