Now the point of all those feeble cable jokes comes home, which is more than you can say for the cable co.

Having finally broke down, I signed up for Comcast's "basic" cable package -- no special deals, since I wdn't dream of letting them touch either my phone or my internet service. They haven't even gotten here yet, and things are already as bad as a huge co. that acts like an inept tiny and hapless co. can make them.

I. Comcast is horrible, part 1: When I signed up for the cable package, I was told by the nice Comcast rep on the phone that the price was "$40 for about 100 channels." He then gave me a "confirmation number" that he told me to write down. Then he transferred me to some other dept - lengthy routing here and there, several minutes later, put onto the right dept at last, I got my final person and also got the actual price: $52. Telling them I had been quoted the other price -- "who did you talk to?" -- went nowhere, as did the confirmation#.

II. Comcast is horrible, part 2: They set me up with a locked-in appointment within an 11-to-2 time range, making a careful notation that it was to be closer to 11:00 than to 2:00. The person I spoke with some time after 11:00 had no such note; when I asked her why they told me blahblahblah, no clear answer. To do the subcontractor who called me justice, she did call me more than once during the afternoon to explain that the technician was running late. No point in telling her that if Comcast wd dig into its pockets and hire ONE more technician for this route, the jobs wd be done . . . It's now 5:30, and my cell phone battery just went down.

Comcast's path and mine will cross, again. If there is ever any class action lawsuit, any at all, I'm in. Something tells me parts 1 & 2 of this disgraceful mini-narrative will not be the last ones.