Hoda

Hoda and Kathie Lee.

Is she kidding?
Is that her real name?
“Regis and Kathie Lee” sounds plausible, but “Hoda and Kathie Lee” doesn’t.
I guess that’s her real name. But it sounds like she spoke “who-dat” into her iPhone’s voice-recognition, and it came up with “Hooda.”
“Hooda,” she thought. “I like that; that’s who I am.”
She’s the child of Egyptian parents; born in Oklahoma, but lived a short time in Egypt.
The voice-recognition on my iPhone has come up with strange stuff.
“Siri” is pretty good, but Ford’s “Sync” on my car is awful.
“Please say a command.” I do, and it calls someone other than I commanded.
I don’t do GPS on Sync; it’s “turn left in 100 feet” — voice-direction, not a screen.
As I’ve said hundreds of times: “The GPS is in my head.”
About all I’m doing with Sync is Bluetoothing my cellphone. And all I do is answer it.
Would that it could make calls as well as Siri, but it can’t.
Sync is Microsoft, so Bill and his gang should get cracking.
Sync is not a selling-point I would endorse.
My car, which I purchased used, also has “Sirius” satellite-radio, and they keep begging me to sign up.
PASS! I never play radio while driving anyway; it’s a distraction. I’m concentrating hard; still driving transit-bus.
So why should I fork over almost five bucks a month for something I’ll never use?
I get Hoda and Kathie Lee while I work out at the Canandaigua YMCA.
The Exercise-Gym has giant wall-mounted flat-screen TVs, supposedly to distract from working-out.
There are Kathie Lee and Hoda screeching at each other.
So this is what TV has come to?
No wonder I don’t watch it! The Internet and this computer are far more interesting.
The fact the lady is named “Hooda” seems appropriate.
I know it’s her real name, and legitimate. But I can’t get past how silly it sounds as “Hooda and Kathie Lee.”
I’ve successfully used Sync to call my brother’s cellphone. But that’s all I’ve had success with. —I asked it to call my cleaning-lady, and it called my mower-man, or my hairdresser who retired some time ago, so his shop-phone no longer exists.

• “Siri” is the iPhone voice-recognition personal assistant. It works pretty good; although you can baffle it. “Siri” is the female voice that interacts with you.
• For 16&1/2 years (1977-1993) I drove transit bus for Regional Transit Service (RTS) in Rochester, NY, a public employer, the transit-bus operator in Rochester and environs. My stroke October 26th, 1993 ended that. I retired on medical-disability. I recovered fairly well.
• I work out in the Canandaigua YMCA Exercise-Gym, appropriately named the “Wellness-Center,” usually three days per week, about two-three hours per visit. (“Canandaigua” [“cannan-DAY-gwuh”] is a small city to the east nearby where I live in Western NY. The city is also within a rural town called “Canandaigua.” The name is Indian, and means “Chosen Spot.” It’s about 14 miles east. —I live in the small rural town of West Bloomfield, southeast of Rochester.)