You ever hear that one guy on the orange or blue lines? He always says “Have a nice day” and then in a higher voice “You have a nice day too, Mr. Tran Operator!” Frequently he does little skits. Man, that guy cracks me up.
–Cliffy
Er, automated system, don’tcha know? The intonation is weird because the sentence is pasted together from its constituent phrases.
Either that or this particular lady has identically spoken sisters in every station in the country working 24/7/365.
errr… nope, not an automated system, not in this instance anyway. (The breaks between the pasted-together phrases are noticeable, and they weren’t there in this instance - besides which, I know for definite the station in question was using live announcers at this time. Maybe, for reasons of her own, she was trying to impersonate an automated system?)
“Next stop, Willowby”…
I have heard him on the blue line before. He made some weird comment after announcing the Foggy Bottom stop, but nobody else on the train batted an eye, so I thought I had imagined it.
You didn’t imagine it; it’s just that those of us who ride that line regularly (as I used to) aren’t surprised by it anymore and simply enjoy it in a non-demonstrative way.
–Cliffy
There’s a MUNI (San Francisco’s attempt at public transit with a minimum of civilian casualties) operator who will often provide positive thoughts to those leaving the train. He’s got a smooth bass voice, so it sounds nice too. For example, “This is Civic Center Station. And just remember as you depart the train today to smile on your brothers and bring peace to the world. Civic Center Station.”
Most of the BART operators have to repeat the same announcement repeatedly, and this is in fact almost all they do (everything else is automated). So the often sound fairly bored. But I heard one who did every station with a different & entertaining voice.
“MacAhthur … ah… this is MacAhthur station.”
“Collllissseum! This is the Colllisseum station! You can go downstairs and catch that bus to OAKLAND … INTERNATIONAL … AIRPORT !”
[slow & plodding]“Bay … Fair … Bay … Fair station …”
And then there’s “De Castelnau”, which the electronic woman pronounces “De Castelnoo” for some reason. Not that I’ve ever heard anyone else including STCUM employees pronounce it that way.
And don’t get me started on the announcements. “Votre attention s’il-vous-plait, interromption de srvc sllng vt ntr sstzxnn agggrgn lstzn hrbrgggrd. ddvmmmzze ct pour d’autres annonces.”
So you do that.
Oh, and for a while they were repairing something on a section of the green line I have to take to get to school, so they would slow down very fast (?) going into this one station. Announcements like,
“Vot’ attention siouplé, à cause des travaux dans la station Guy-Concordia ce train va subir une décélération rapide, alors agrippez-vous à vot’ siege, vot’ chum, je sais pas…”
“Your hattention please, bicauz of construction in de Guy-Concordia station, dis train his gonna slow down real fas’, so grab your seat h’or your boyfrien’ or whaddever…”
Did I mention this was Valentine’s day?
Yes, I’ve heard about that, and I am sympathetic because my best friends surgery has a similar vocal cord problem and has had dozens of surgeries, and after one he could do nothing but whisper for an entire year. It was the source of fantastic low talker (a la Seinfeld) jokes, but that’s another topic. It doesn’t take away from the fact that when you flip on the radio, you think Diane fits right in with Karl and Daniel Schorr and the rest of 'em–and not necessarily in a good way.
The robotic “MIND the GAP” on the London Underground has always cracked me up.