The Sandwich

It was lunch time and I was in my car, and was out shopping. I had come from the house and had taken a cold diet coke with me and thought I ought to get a sandwich or a hot dog or a piece of pizza. These were my major considerations.

I was at the bank and next door was Sobeys Supermarket, the new one with a large “gourmet food section”. I could go to Costco for a cheap hot dog but it meant parking again and getting through Costco at noon is a bit difficult most days.

Into Sobeys I went, and looking over a huge lunch counter of gourmet carry out I realized they had fresh sandwiches to go. They had a few specials printed on cards, and one was a roast beef and provolone and another was a Montréal smoked meat sandwich. For my American friends, Montreal smoked meat is the Canadian equivalent of corned beef. It’s just as popular, but instead of being a corned brisket, it’s a pastrami kind of thing and it’s great, especially if it’s fresh and hot! It’s a kosher-style deli meat product made by salting and curing beef brisket with spices. The brisket is allowed to absorb the flavors over a week, and is then hot smoked to cook through, and finally steamed to completion.

I stood at the beautiful new counter, full of food, and there were no customers. There were also no employees. It was 12:20p.m., on a weekday! As I looked around I saw one woman in a white uniform with gloves in her hands and said, “I’d like to order a Montréal smoked meat sandwich please”. It was if I’d said something very bad. She stared at me and kind of ran away. 

There was a big sign over my head that said: Special, Montreal smoked meat sandwich $4.99. This was a great price.

Another woman came out, with a white uniform on and gloves on her hands and looked at me and I said, “I’d like to order a Montréal smoked meat sandwich please”. She looked at me startled, turned around quickly, and ran into the same place the first woman ran. A minute later a young guy dressed like a chef came out with the other two women sneaking in behind him, and another woman way in the back (they must have employees but they hide) and he had a hat on which seemed to give him secret powers so he could talk.

I said, “I’d like to order a Montréal smoked meat sandwich please”. He said (HE SPOKE!!!) “We no longer carry that product here but you can go around to the meat department and they can get it for you” and he said this very quickly as he wanted to run away. I laughed and changed the order to a roast beef and provolone and that made everyone easier and they all came out of the rabbit hole.

I was asked if I’d like it toasted which I did, and they did. However, they had no steamer or anything so the roll was great and toasted but the insides, roast beef, provolone and fresh veggies including mushrooms was all cold as a refrigerator. The man with a hat also told me they can’t change the sign so it will continue to say Montreal smoked meat.

A piece of tape or a marker would end the sign I guess, but a multi-billion dollar corporation wouldn’t have the means to figure this out or pay for a new sign.

I think they will not be in the “gourmet carry out business much longer!”

The Recall

This was what it said on the internet:

Recall Date:

JUL 02, 2014

Model Affected:

2006 Cadillac SRX

Summary:

This defect can affect the safe operation of the airbag system. Until this recall is performed, customers should remove all items from their key rings, leaving only the ignition key. The key fob (if applicable), should also be removed from the key ring. General Motors LLC (GM) notified the agency on July 2, 2014 that they are recalling 554,328 model year 2003-2014 Cadillac CTS vehicles manufactured August 16, 2001, to April 28, 2014, and 2004-2006 Cadillac SRX vehicles manufactured March 20, 2003, to August 11, 2006. In these models, the weight on the key ring and/or road conditions or some other jarring event may cause the ignition switch to move out of the run position, turning off the engine.

Consequences:

If the key is not in the run position, the air bags may not deploy if the vehicle is involved in a crash, increasing the risk of injury.

Remedy:

GM will notify owners, and dealers will provide two replacement key rings, and vehicles with slotted keys will receive key inserts, free of charge. The manufacturer has not yet provided a notification schedule. Owners may contact Cadillac customer service at 1-800-458-8006. GM's number for this recall is 14172.

Potential Units Affected:

554328

Notes:

General Motors LLC

I called General Motors and asked what this all meant, and if I needed to go to the dealers to do this. They said I needed to call Cadillac Canada to get my question answered as they were Cadillac US. They transferred me.

Cadillac Canada said it was a Canadian recall as well, but I needed to talk to my local dealer in order to get my question answered. They would transfer me but I said I’d call later as I had already spent too much time on this important issue.

They were very nice and gave me the dealers name and phone number and even looked up my VIN number because I needed to know that to get a question answered and make an appointment for a recall repair.

The dealer transferred me to Service and a very nice woman answered and explained the whole thing to me and all I could do was laugh! You see, if you were tall, and had long legs, you could hit the key with your knee and shut off the car while driving. I explained that if you forgot to put gas in the car it would not move but any fool would know that as well. I have been driving this car for 4 ½ years and never turned it off with my knee and would have a hard time doing that one even on purpose. She got started laughing and told me I made her week!

She also advised that General Motors have no fix for this but will move your key to a separate key ring and give you a rubber top for it if you need it.

I realize they have to respond to these problems but we may have gone over the top here. I promised not to hit my key with my knee and not make an appointment to have a service technician put a rubber top on my key and move it to a new key