Husbands are for amusement.

I’m half convinced that’s true. My married coworkers continue to regale me with all sorts of amusing tidbits about their entertaining (from my point of view anyway) other halves.

I was telling D the other day about one of my current favorite commercials. It’s the one by Nationwide Insurance where the driver takes a sudden turn when ordered to by his GPS system. D’s husband B, possessing the X chromosome in the duo, also possessed a love for buttons, electronics, and in particular, a love for electronics with lots of buttons. B had a prized toy, a Garmin, (I’m quite envious, I would LOVE to have one), for those who’ve rented Hertz vehicles, it’s just like a NeverLost system: the black box emits a soothing voice that narrates directions, while a video screen displays the vehicle as it travels along aforementioned directions. Basicly it’s a talking map.

The talking map can be customized to show the quickest route (as opposed to avoiding highways, avoiding local roads etc), but the algorithm used to calculate the route isn’t always the most accurate. Anyone who’s used Yahoo or Google can attest, sometimes you get the odd and unnecessary U-turn or 3 right turns instead of one left turn thrown in.

On this particular instance, D&B were traveling on familiar roads to visit a friend. For those who aren’t familiar with DC Metro, 270 has a set of service roads that run parallel along it. You have to take the service road if you want to exit onto a local road, but otherwise, you can stay on 270 or its service roads, it makes no difference. Garmin advised that they take 270 north, exit onto the service road, take the onramp onto 270 north, exit onto the service road, take the onramp onto 270 north…lather rinse repeat repeat repeat. B proceeded to do *just* that.

I’m waiting for Garmin to order him into a storefront one of these days.


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For those who were curious, the gorgeous building featured is Frank Ghery's Music Center located in downtown L.A. It's currently being featured in a GLUT of commercials including the new Honda commercial.