ChrisMaverick dotcom

The Fictional Complaint Department

I’m teaching a class called “Written Professional Communication” at the University of Pittsburgh. Amongst other things it’s about… well, communicating professionally in writing. Currently we’re working on “responding to complaints”. In order to generate some complaint s to respond to I instructed my students to write a complaint letter as though they lived in the fictional universe of their choosing:

To my friend Aspen…

I almost never post to my blog anymore (should fix that) Aa lot of what I say I put over on VoxPopcast), but I do pretty frequently say shorter things on Twitter or Facebook. Today, I wrote this on Facebook… a eulogy for a friend. I decided that it was something I wanted to have…

Telemarketer Theater

Guess what… It’s telemarketer theater time ya’ll!!! Caller: Hello is Chris there? Mav: Sure! Caller: Hello, this is David with XXXXX insurance. Mav: Hi, David! So nice to talk to you. How are you, what can I do for you? Caller: Wow… umm… I’m fine, thank you for asking. Ummm… sir, I’m calling on behalf…

Telemarketer Theater

Guess what happened today? That’s right, it’s Telemarketer Theater time, ya’ll! INT. PITTSBURGH HOME – DAY Our hero, MAV, is watching Jeopardy with his wife Stephanie when the phone rings. Mav gives a devilish smile as he looks at the phone. Steph recognizes the smile and pauses the TV. Mav answers the phone. Mav: Hello?Caller:…

Telemarketer Theater

Telemarketer Theater is getting harder and harder to do. [INT. PITTSBURGH HOME – DAY] Our hero, MAV, is doing some work on his laptop as his phone rings. He’s been discouraged by these last few calls. But maybe something will happen with this one. Mav answers the phone and hear the call center on the…

Tabulating Instructor Honoriffics

Not that this will be an accurate sampling group, but based on comments with Stephanie and Jameel… Steph and I are wondering something that we’ve put together a little poll for. What was your undergrad major. Did you call your professors (or most professors) by their first name or last name? Was it different for…

So about Triplicate Girl…

Ok… question for old skool comic book fans… (Wayne Wise, looking at you since this is a favorite of yours). There’s a Legion of Superheroes character named “Triplicate Girl” or “Triad” (depending on which era of comics you’re reading). Her powers are that she comes from an alien race where everyone three identical beings. Only…

New Idea: Nekkid Politicians

So I was doing some random Wikipedia surfing earlier, and I ran across a page detailing all of the political sex scandals on a federal level in US history. Of course I read it… DON’T JUDGE ME! And I know some of you are reading it too! Anyway, I got to the end of the…