Had to call the Odeon filmline last night. I’m sure their voice recognition technology is awesome, but we just couldn’t get the damn thing to understand the name of our Cinema. After some struggle and experimentation, we were finally able to get the film-times we were after out of it… but it was not what you might call a smooth interaction. And I’m not sure Miami Vice was worth the trouble.
I’m all for new technologies – my technophile status generally goes uncontested – but in this case I would have preferred a touchtone option. Or even (shock, horror) a person.
Whiteleys was Hitler’s favourite building, and he was planning to make it his central office in the UK when the Nazi’s invaded Britain. Who says History is dull.
The story I heard was it was actually the University of London’s Senate House that the Nazis coveted as their potential London HQ. Never been proven (although the Luftwaffe never bombed it), although Ian McKellen’s version of Richard III, set in a 1930s fascist London, used it as the fascists’ headquarters.
Hitler may have wanted more than one HQ in london – check this out, which claims that Hitler wanted Whiteleys for it as well.
I had heard it was Senate House too, though… Maybe he wanted a West London address in addition to a WC one? Such craven indulgence.