Scripts Lesson 19

Get Get Get Page 5.

Script.
We got up very early at 3:00 am. We got dressed and had a quick breakfast. Then we got into the car. When we left home it was still dark, but as we drove southwards, it got lighter. We got to Dover a little after seven o’clock and got the ferry from there to France. Then we drove East and South through Belgium. We stopped at a motor way service station near Brussels where we got some petrol and something to eat. A little after 3 pm we got to Heinberg, a pretty little village in Germany for our holiday.

Rocco's Commercial Page 8.

Script.
Rocco’s Furniture Warehouse is having a Monster Sale. Find all the highest quality dining room sets for rock bottom prices. We’ve got Oak, Cherrywood, pine and maple dining tables and china hutches, kitchen cabinets. Sets starting from 899.99. You won’t believe our quality, you can’t miss our prices. Absolutely no money down, don’t pay until 2010. Buy now, pay later. Sales’s over Friday, Friday, Friday. So hurry down get the deals while they’re still at Rocco’s Furniture Warehouse. 727 Landsdown Ave. That’s Rocco’s Furniture Warehouse. Be there.

My buddy from college, Jack, was getting married and our friend Rob was planning a bachelor party for him in Vegas. It was going to be the last weekend of the month and I wanted to go. The trouble was, I was scheduled to work that weekend. I needed to get the time off from work or I was going to miss out on all the fun.


Time off from Work page 10.
Script.
I have some vacation leave, but company policy requires that my boss sign off on any leave we take. I’ve heard of companies doing that for longer periods of leave—like maternity leave or a leave of absence—but our company does that even for vacation leave. I thought about just calling in sick that weekend—I do have a lot of accumulated sick leave—but I didn’t think my boss would appreciate me leaving him hanging.

In the end, I just asked him straight out and, to my surprise, he said, “okay.” Now, I just need to get ready for a wild weekend with the guys. I can’t wait!

The Coat Check Page 13.
Script.
Here’s New York Times’ chief restaurant critic Frank Rooney on tipping at the coat check… For me and some other diners I know, tipping the person who returns our coats is less straight forward than tipping on the bill… Is one dollar really enough? I did some research and most etiquette guides seem to recommend one dollar per item. But that’s per person, not per coat check ticket and it’s also per item so if you’re checking a coat and a bag, two dollars is the recommendation. I talked to some coat check workers and solicited readers’ opinions and that shed light on other important variables. For example, coat check workers consider an umbrella an additional item equivalent to a coat or bag. Also, if you return to a coat check person repeatedly to fetch or restore items, that too should be a factor into the tipping equation…And the workers checking your coat, like your server, rely primarily on tips for their income, and these people, unlike busboys, probably aren’t sharing any server’s tips. Of course it’s up to every diner, but with the bit of coat weather wearing left, I thought these accessories of information might help. This is Frank Rooney at the New York Times.
Extra work: Helicopter Mom.
Script.
Robin Lewis is a single parent who homeschools her sons. And just because Ethan and Brandon are out of the house and she’s taken on a full time job, that doesn’t mean she’s losing interest or hour by hour involvement in their boys’ lives. Every single day. Like this one.

“Hi, Ethan, it’s mom, it’s 9:10 and I know you have class at 9:30.”

Later she makes another call to Ethan.
Robin: “Hi, Hi Ethan.”
Ethan: “Hi, what’s going on?”
Robin: “I'm good, how are you doing? Just get out of class?”

She checks the e-mail from Brandon.
Robin: “History quiz is just going to be on the first 13 chapters…”

Sends an e–mail to Ethan with his full schedule.
Robin: “1:05”

Another call to Ethan:
Robin: “What are you doing this afternoon?”
Ethan: “I have to meet some people at 5.”
Robin: “Socially?”
Ethan: “Oh no no, studying”
Robin: “Oh, study group?”
Ethan: “Study group, yeah!”

Then she calls Brandon.
Robin: Are you going to be able to get that map thing for me?
Brandon: Yeah, yeah, I was, I’m going to do that today, like I have a few things…
Robin: Well, why don’t you call me after Human Geography and let me how the place went?
Brandon: All right, will do.

When she's not talking to her boys, Robin’s organizing their lives. She spends an hour drafting to-do e-mails for her sons, checking their grades.

Robin: “98 out of a hundred on his History essay”.

Checking their bank accounts.
Robin: “Looks like Brandon is going to need a few dollars for the weekend”.

Even using their personal passwords to check their student e-mail.
Robin: “Something about a conference reminder”.

Brandon and Ethan both say they’re grateful for their mom’s efforts on their behalf.
Brandon: She wants to make sure that I do well and it’s all because, you know, she cares. Which is great, cause you know then it’s like I don’t have to make a list, I just need to print it out and it’s there. It saves me a lot of time.
Ethan: It’s nice to have someone else that kind of serves us, maybe secretary, secretary mom.
Reporter: One of your sons I think referred to you as a secretary mom.
Robin: Oh, I think that’s great. That means that I’m very organized.
Robin: “Will be ready by Saturday?”
Robin: You know, a secretary helps to keep the boss focused and organized, right?
Robin: We don’t know how to balance much of our lives yet when we’re 18.

Extra Work: David Pogue's Take on Twitter.
Script.
Ahh, winter time, the agile blue skies, the glinting of the sunshine on the way leads, the twittering of the birds. Actually there’s not a lot of twittering going on this time of the year unless of course you’re talking about twitter on your computer, you might’ve heard of twitter, this free internet thing, the first that broke out the story of the plane landing on the Hudson. The twitter is of course a lot more than that, so today I thought I’d take some time to answer a few questions about twitter


Question # 1:
What is Twitter?
Basically, it’s a website where you can blast out little messages to anyone who’s signed up to see them. Like a cross between instant messaging and blogging. Of course, have the fun is receiving the little messages from other people. It’s very social, it can be a little confusing which is why most of the six million users so far are tackies and early adopters. Which brings us to question number two:

How do I do it?
You sign up at twitter.com, it’s free which kind of makes you wonder how the company expects to make money, but who cares about that these days? Right?

Anyway, in the old days you used to have the lumber of the website every time you wanted to send out this little messages or “tweets” as they’re called. That’s now too much of a hazzle. So nowdays most people use this little free programs like tweetdeck, tweetorific or they actually do tweets from their cellphones.

Ok, question number 3:
What’s the point?

The online guides are filled with rules, use twitter for marketing, don’t use twitter for marketing, say what you’re doing right now, don’t say what you’re doing right now.

But the bottom line is, twitter is just a tool that was created without any rules, without any agenda, people ddd for marketing, they use it to break news, they keep in touch, they share jokes, to kill time, I use it as a research tool, I dcan sort of query the masses, I’ll tell you what, I’ll do a real actual demo, this is completely onstage, I’m going to post a question to all the people that have signed up to follow my tweets. So say, hey, I’m demoing twitter on CNBC. Everybody chime in with where you are and what the weather is.

And in like 10 seconds we’ll see the tiny responses pour in, Lincoln, NE, Columbus, Chile, This Is just a fun example, but you got the point. No other invention would get you so instant feedback from a huge group at any hour. Uh, thanks guys, that’s plenty. So, is twitter a time drain? Yes Is it another ego things like how many friends do I have? Yes. Is it a fad? Yes.

But, is it also addictive, powerful and very entertaining? Yes. And besides, until the weather warms up, it’s the only twittering you’re going to get.