My Back Page: Wow! That’s Cool…But?

OK, I confess, I didn’t actually go to the mammoth International CES in Las Vegas this year (first time I missed it in 23 years)…I went skiing instead. But I stayed informed every day (with, of course, CableFAX and CNET and the gobs of coverage from myriad sources…some even made a little bit of sense). And read a lot and looked at lots of pictures online and even skimmed the keynote speeches. One thing struck me about most of the coverage… Almost every news story gloriously hyped some new gizmo, gadget or service from some vendor or provider, following the hype with: yes, but! But, it doesn’t… So, to help you round up the coverage, I thought I’d provide this Chinese menu…choose one from each column to fill in the blanks: At CES International, (fill in the blank from either Column A or Column B) ______________ announced a new (pick one: "gizmo" or "service") __________ that astounded the quarter million not-yet-jaded attendees by offering (fill in the blank from either Column C or Column D) ___________________; but, it didn’t (fill in the blank from Column E) ______________________________________! Addendum: Walking around in the Massai Mara, we stumbled across a field of skeletons…including this one of a wildebeest. Amazing animals—we saw about 2.4 million of them (I counted ’em).