Here’s To The Loser: Closed Captioning Clicker Smackdown Report

Posted: January 27th, 2012 | Filed under: Culture, Ruminations | 2 Comments »

Those of you who are NFL fans know about the Tim Tebow phenomenon, and how it reached full flower with a big late season victory over the Steelers.

The game went to overtime. Under the league’s rules, first team to score wins, without the other squad having an an opportunity to tie it up. Denver got the ball. First play, Tebow throws an 80 yard TD pass to beat Pittsburgh.

The OT went just seconds, long enough for the snap, the Tebow dropback, a look downfield, the toss and Demaryius Thomas’ scamper to the endzone.

Boom. Game over.

Well now I know how the Steelers felt.

I shan’t repeat all the details of the smackdown this past Wednesday noon to see if I or a friend had the better and correct solution to turning off another pal’s closed captioning, which visual impediment was driving his significant other nuts. You can read the details here.

Suffice it to say, I should have been wary when “Milt” showed up with an iPad, something he’s never done at any previous one of our regular weekly lunches. Silly me. The guy, it turns out, had spent the better part of two days, surfing the web for the solution. Which he apparently found at some obscure blog site.

He won the coin flip.

In 71 seconds flat, he had the TV screen clear of the nettlesome text. Had he not been explaining his process to the other two of us while pressing buttons, he would have completed the task in well less than a minute.

Sigh. What a bitter and ignominious defeat.

Had I spent my advance time, researching my solution instead of regaling you, my loyal public, with the details of this significant battle, I might have been better served. Then again, the luck of the coin flip sealed my doom.

I shan’t bore you with the solution’s details. If you desire them, email me and I’ll reveal the skewed method necessary to turn closed captioning on and off with one of those HD cable boxes. Or I may simply forward to request on to my conqueror.

Until then, I’ll be tending to my wounds. If there’s enough balm?

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