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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: I remember... (For older shipmates?)
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Doone
Shipmate
# 18470
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Penny S:
I don't know anyone who has thought the programme got it right. In RL or online.
Me neither.
Posts: 2208 | From: UK | Registered: Sep 2015
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
It rather casts nasturtiums on other programmes where we don't know the source material from first hand.
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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Wesley J
Silly Shipmate
# 6075
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Penny S:
[...] (Did anyone have to write a composition on "A Day in the Life of a Penny" at school? I developed a feeling that teachers used it when they had run out of ideas. One of my fictional ones fell down a drain soon after being given in change... Curiously, I never thought of the obvious twist.)
Forgive me: What is that 'obvious' twist for your composition?
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Be it as it may: Wesley J will stay. --- Euthanasia, that sounds good. An alpine neutral neighbourhood. Then back to Britain, all dressed in wood. Things were gonna get worse. (John Cooper Clarke)
Posts: 7354 | From: The Isles of Silly | Registered: May 2004
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Wesley J:
Forgive me: What is that 'obvious' twist for your composition?
Who was that addressed to, Wesley?
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Wesley J
Silly Shipmate
# 6075
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Posted
This, from a few days ago. Ehem. You see: I'm just catching up. No really, I am...! ![[Paranoid]](graemlins/paranoid.gif)
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Be it as it may: Wesley J will stay. --- Euthanasia, that sounds good. An alpine neutral neighbourhood. Then back to Britain, all dressed in wood. Things were gonna get worse. (John Cooper Clarke)
Posts: 7354 | From: The Isles of Silly | Registered: May 2004
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Doone
Shipmate
# 18470
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Wesley J:
quote:
Originally posted by Penny S:
[...] (Did anyone have to write a composition on "A Day in the Life of a Penny" at school? I developed a feeling that teachers used it when they had run out of ideas. One of my fictional ones fell down a drain soon after being given in change... Curiously, I never thought of the obvious twist.)
Forgive me: What is that 'obvious' twist for your composition?
Oh yes, I did, though I remember more clearly doing the same as a postage stamp on a letter. We had to describe its journey ![[Ultra confused]](graemlins/confused2.gif)
Posts: 2208 | From: UK | Registered: Sep 2015
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Amanda B. Reckondwythe
Dressed for Church
# 5521
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Posted
Remember when commercials were an integral part of the TV program in question, read and acted by the principals of the show?
The George Burns & Gracie Allen Show was sponsored by Carnation. Whenever I pour myself a beverage of any sort, the picture comes to mind of Gracie Allen mixing a glass of Carnation instant milk, drinking it, and smacking her lips as though she really thought it tasted good.
[ 15. February 2016, 14:10: Message edited by: Amanda B. Reckondwythe ]
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"I take prayer too seriously to use it as an excuse for avoiding work and responsibility." -- The Revd Martin Luther King Jr.
Posts: 10542 | From: The Great Southwest | Registered: Feb 2004
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Chamois
Shipmate
# 16204
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Posted
Originally posted by Ariel:
quote:
What surprised me was that it was one of those where you just put money in the slot, and apparently this cost sixpence. My memory of phone boxes from the era was of phones that were a bit more complicated, with Buttons A and B, and you had to get the sequence right of dialling, pressing and putting money in, or you lost your money. I don't remember it costing sixpence, though perhaps it did.
Yes, this was certainly the case in the 60s. I was a Brownie from 1964 until 1968. Part of "Being Prepared" was that you were supposed to have two pre-decimal pennies in your uniform pocket at all times, this being the price of a local phone call. And we had to practise - Button A to connect the call when the other party answered, Button B to get your money back if nobody answered. The buttons frequently didn't work properly and you lost your money.
I have clear recollections of the new phones, without Buttons A and B, coming in while I was in secondary school. So that would have been in the 1970s.
Posts: 978 | From: Hill of roses | Registered: Feb 2011
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Baptist Trainfan
Shipmate
# 15128
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Posted
Two pennies? By the time I went to secondary school, we needed to keep four to hand!
By the way, everyone waxes lyrical about old-fashioned telephone boxes, but I hated them: they smelt of stale cigarette smoke and urine, the directories were usually torn or burnt, and they were generally grubby. Oh, and the doors were very heavy.
Posts: 9750 | From: The other side of the Severn | Registered: Sep 2009
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Baptist Trainfan
Shipmate
# 15128
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe:
Remember when commercials were an integral part of the TV program in question, read and acted by the principals of the show?
Most Brits won't remember them, but we actually had
advertising programmes on commercial television for a while.
This was the exact opposite of "Blue Peter" on the strictly non-commercial BBC, where the old washing-up liquid bottles and cereal packets were artfully disguised so you couldn't see the brand - we usually guessed though"
Posts: 9750 | From: The other side of the Severn | Registered: Sep 2009
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Baptist Trainfan:
By the way, everyone waxes lyrical about old-fashioned telephone boxes, but I hated them: they smelt of stale cigarette smoke and urine, the directories were usually torn or burnt, and they were generally grubby. Oh, and the doors were very heavy.
Yes, the inside was usually filthy. There was also the social pressure of people forming a queue outside waiting for you to finish your call, sometimes yanking the door open to ask impatiently if you were going to be much longer.
Having said that, back in teenage days, I still used to manage to phone my best friend with a 2p coin from a phone box. She would then phone me back, and those interminable teenage conversations were punctuated with her getting the portable record player and playing the latest hit singles down the phone to me, until her father got the phone bill and asked her to limit phone calls to half an hour max in future. Which was very decent of him.
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Moo
Ship's tough old bird
# 107
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Baptist Trainfan:
By the way, everyone waxes lyrical about old-fashioned telephone boxes, but I hated them: they smelt of stale cigarette smoke and urine, the directories were usually torn or burnt, and they were generally grubby. Oh, and the doors were very heavy.
They did have the advantage, however, of keeping the rain off you while you phoned.
Moo
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Kerygmania host
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See you later, alligator.
Posts: 20365 | From: Alleghany Mountains of Virginia | Registered: May 2001
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
I met my sister today, and rather curiously, she raised the subject of the day in the life of a penny compositions, and asked if I ever made myself the subject. It arose from her talking about an author who had written about the story of an accordion, and that arose from our discussing the history of some of our furniture. But it was odd seeing her arriving at it, when I had not thought about that penny falling down the drain for decades. Over half a century, probably. Until the other day.
[ 15. February 2016, 21:27: Message edited by: Penny S ]
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John Holding
Coffee and Cognac
# 158
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Chamois:
Originally posted by Ariel:
quote:
What surprised me was that it was one of those where you just put money in the slot, and apparently this cost sixpence. My memory of phone boxes from the era was of phones that were a bit more complicated, with Buttons A and B, and you had to get the sequence right of dialling, pressing and putting money in, or you lost your money. I don't remember it costing sixpence, though perhaps it did.
Yes, this was certainly the case in the 60s. I was a Brownie from 1964 until 1968. Part of "Being Prepared" was that you were supposed to have two pre-decimal pennies in your uniform pocket at all times, this being the price of a local phone call. And we had to practise - Button A to connect the call when the other party answered, Button B to get your money back if nobody answered. The buttons frequently didn't work properly and you lost your money.
I have clear recollections of the new phones, without Buttons A and B, coming in while I was in secondary school. So that would have been in the 1970s.
I arrived in the UK in the autumn of 1969 and never encountered Button A and Button B, though many people were only too glad to tell me about them.
What I do remember, and take to be a left over from Button A was the habit of answering the phone with a loud proclamation of your own phone number, presumably so that if the caller had dialed the wrong number, s/he could save the pennnies. It was just 10-12 years ago that I noticed this habit had finally died out, though it may actually have disappeared before I noticed.
John
Posts: 5929 | From: Ottawa, Canada | Registered: May 2001
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
That's a good point - I wonder if it started to die out when telephone numbers became so unwieldy? I think I gave it up once our own number (without the area code) went from five digits to six (when we lived in Northern Ireland).
By that time, telephone calls were becoming much cheaper anyway, so it seemed to matter less.
I have (not quite fond) memories of my dad standing at the sitting-room door telling my mum to "get off that phone"* when she was talking to my sister or brother who lived 300 miles away (making it a "trunk" call).
* back in the days when houses only had one telephone, and it was in the hall, presumably to discourage loitering as it was cold out there. ![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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Baptist Trainfan
Shipmate
# 15128
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Piglet:
I wonder if it started to die out when telephone numbers became so unwieldy?
Perhaps. In Britain it may have been dealt a blow when "Area codes" were replaced by "All-figure numbers" - although, in many cases, the actual electronic digits were the same.
I think the real culprits, though, were (i) mobile phones - with people both changing them often and not knowing their own number; and (ii) the availability of "caller display" technology - not that we've got it.
There was a certain "melody" to giving your number. A friend of mine always said "NINE - five-two; three-five-six-eight" with a particular inflection.
Posts: 9750 | From: The other side of the Severn | Registered: Sep 2009
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Schroedinger's cat
Ship's cool cat
# 64
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Posted
I remember when you had to pay to get on the main ship boards. So I contributed to Small Fire instead.
Happy times. Or not.
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Blog
Music for your enjoyment
Lord may all my hard times be healing times
take out this broken heart and renew my mind.
Posts: 18859 | From: At the bottom of a deep dark well. | Registered: May 2001
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Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
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Posted
Saying your phone number on the phone when you pick it up has not died out. I know a practitioner of it to this day.
Jengie
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"To violate a persons ability to distinguish fact from fantasy is the epistemological equivalent of rape." Noretta Koertge
Back to my blog
Posts: 20894 | From: city of steel, butterflies and rainbows | Registered: May 2001
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Leorning Cniht
Shipmate
# 17564
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by John Holding:
the habit of answering the phone with a loud proclamation of your own phone number, presumably so that if the caller had dialed the wrong number, s/he could save the pennnies. It was just 10-12 years ago that I noticed this habit had finally died out, though it may actually have disappeared before I noticed.
Its not dead yet. My parents still answer the phone that way. It's such a habit that last time I was visiting them, the phone rang and I picked up the phone and announced their phone number. Only it was the old number - the one they changed 25 years or so ago.
Posts: 5026 | From: USA | Registered: Feb 2013
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Rev per Minute
Shipmate
# 69
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by leo:
quote:
Originally posted by Jengie jon:
Saying your phone number on the phone when you pick it up has not died out. I know a practitioner of it to this day.
Jengie
I still do it unstead of saying my name - to avoid giving info. to scammers
But many scammers use random dialling - so by giving your number, you confirm one piece of information they didn't previously have. In the same way, when someone says they dialled a wrong number and asks you to tell them your number, the right answer is not 'Barchester 1234' but 'What number did you dial?'
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"Allons-y!" "Geronimo!" "Oh, for God's sake!" The Day of the Doctor
At the end of the day, we face our Maker alongside Jesus. RIP ken
Posts: 2696 | From: my desk (if I can find the keyboard under this mess) | Registered: May 2001
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Baptist Trainfan:
Perhaps. In Britain it may have been dealt a blow when "Area codes" were replaced by "All-figure numbers" - although, in many cases, the actual electronic digits were the same.
Yes, you can't now answer the phone with "Whitehall 1212" (or similar) any more. (Remember when phones had dials with letters of the alphabet on?)
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Baptist Trainfan
Shipmate
# 15128
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Posted
Where we used to live in West London, the old codes RIVerside and SHEpherds Bush translated directly into the new codes 748 and 743. My childhood code of MILl Hill became the unrelated 959.
Posts: 9750 | From: The other side of the Severn | Registered: Sep 2009
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Amanda B. Reckondwythe
Dressed for Church
# 5521
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Posted
In US cities, the old name exchanges on phone numbers lent themselves to being status symbols. In New York, it was quite prestigious to have a BUtterfield or MUrray Hill number. WAtkins less so, as I recall.
In Philadelphia, PEnnypacker had all the status. MUnicipal didn't.
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"I take prayer too seriously to use it as an excuse for avoiding work and responsibility." -- The Revd Martin Luther King Jr.
Posts: 10542 | From: The Great Southwest | Registered: Feb 2004
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Galloping Granny
Shipmate
# 13814
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
Yes, you can't now answer the phone with "Whitehall 1212" (or similar) any more. (Remember when phones had dials with letters of the alphabet on?)
Our phones have both. I remember my son's number as 3 digits then (as it happened) his nickname.
So, of course, has my cell phone – how else can you text?
GG
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The Kingdom of Heaven is spread upon the earth, and men do not see it. Gospel of Thomas, 113
Posts: 2629 | From: Matarangi | Registered: Jun 2008
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LeRoc
Famous Dutch pirate
# 3216
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Posted
quote:
Galloping Granny: I remember my son's number as 3 digits then (as it happened) his nickname.
Wow, I'd like to calculate the odds of that.
quote:
Galloping Granny: So, of course, has my cell phone – how else can you text?
With all due respect, the more recent cell phones have a different way of texting ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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I know why God made the rhinoceros, it's because He couldn't see the rhinoceros, so He made the rhinoceros to be able to see it. (Clarice Lispector)
Posts: 9474 | From: Brazil / Africa | Registered: Aug 2002
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Schroedinger's cat
Ship's cool cat
# 64
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Galloping Granny:
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
Yes, you can't now answer the phone with "Whitehall 1212" (or similar) any more. (Remember when phones had dials with letters of the alphabet on?)
Our phones have both. I remember my son's number as 3 digits then (as it happened) his nickname.
So, of course, has my cell phone – how else can you text?
GG
Your cellphone has a dial? Wow - hipster retro
![[Snigger]](graemlins/snigger.gif)
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Blog
Music for your enjoyment
Lord may all my hard times be healing times
take out this broken heart and renew my mind.
Posts: 18859 | From: At the bottom of a deep dark well. | Registered: May 2001
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Galloping Granny
Shipmate
# 13814
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Schroedinger's cat:
quote:
Originally posted by Galloping Granny:
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
Yes, you can't now answer the phone with "Whitehall 1212" (or similar) any more. (Remember when phones had dials with letters of the alphabet on?)
Our phones have both. I remember my son's number as 3 digits then (as it happened) his nickname.
So, of course, has my cell phone – how else can you text?
GG
Your cellphone has a dial? Wow - hipster retro
'Our phones have both' – numbers and letters, landline and mobile. Not dials.
Well, I have a Granny phone, which I use for phone calls and texts and as an alarm clock – bought in the UK as cheaply as possible in 2011. So I didn't know about newer ways of texting. Must get one of the family to show me. They get these deals that involve a new phone each year and spending the next few weeks getting the hang of it.
Thank you, LeRoq, for bringing me up to date.
GG
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The Kingdom of Heaven is spread upon the earth, and men do not see it. Gospel of Thomas, 113
Posts: 2629 | From: Matarangi | Registered: Jun 2008
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Curiosity killed ...
Ship's Mug
# 11770
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Posted
The local code for Putney was 788, but also 789 and a few others when they ran out of 788 numbers.
Someone we were dealing with still had that format in their headed notepaper WIM 3456, or whatever, after letters had disappeared from any phone I was using. Trying to contact them one day, I guessed - something like 946, and managed to get the unlisted number of some belted earl, possibly the Duke of Argyll, and an interrogation as to how I had obtained that number.
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Mugs - Keep the Ship afloat
Posts: 13794 | From: outiside the outer ring road | Registered: Aug 2006
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Moo
Ship's tough old bird
# 107
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Posted
In Arlington, Virginia in the 1940s, people with CHestnut numbers had unlimited calls, while people with GLebe numbers had to pay for calls over a certain amount. There were also EMerson numbers, but I didn't know anyone who had one.
Moo
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Kerygmania host
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See you later, alligator.
Posts: 20365 | From: Alleghany Mountains of Virginia | Registered: May 2001
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by leo:
quote:
Originally posted by Jengie jon:
Saying your phone number on the phone when you pick it up has not died out. I know a practitioner of it to this day.
Jengie
I still do it unstead of saying my name - to avoid giving info. to scammers
I like the Kinky Friedman approach, to say "Start talkin'" when picking up the phone. After all, the caller has interrupted your chain of thought/reading/snooze, so it's good to put the onus back on them.
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
I don't remember it being a thing in the UK, but over here it's quite common for the purveyors of those items that you never knew you needed (sets of stackable Tupperware boxes, painless hair-removal systems etc.) that are advertised on TV* to have a phone number with appropriate words incorporated into it, like 1-800-123-RIPOFF**
* BUT WAIT!! Call RIGHT NOW and we'll DOUBLE your order!!!
** OK, I made that one up, but you know what I mean. ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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Pigwidgeon
Ship's Owl
# 10192
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Posted
In the U.S. it has been common even with legitimate companies, but as the letters have gotten smaller on phones, it seems to be dying out. For example, FedEx lists their number on their webpage as 1(800)463-3339 -- it's still 1(800)Go-FedEx, but they don't show it that way anymore.
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"...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe."
~Tortuf
Posts: 9835 | From: Hogwarts | Registered: Aug 2005
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Amanda B. Reckondwythe
Dressed for Church
# 5521
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
I like the Kinky Friedman approach, to say "Start talkin'" when picking up the phone.
He calls it the blower, too, doesn't he?
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"I take prayer too seriously to use it as an excuse for avoiding work and responsibility." -- The Revd Martin Luther King Jr.
Posts: 10542 | From: The Great Southwest | Registered: Feb 2004
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Offeiriad
Ship's Arboriculturalist
# 14031
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Posted
I remember being baffled for some time as a teenager by a languid English cleric who, when his phone rang, answered it by saying ears
Posts: 1426 | From: La France profonde | Registered: Aug 2008
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basso
Ship’s Crypt Keeper
# 4228
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Posted
Many exchange names were used in several cities, but there were a few that were unique to a town.
I grew up with a DUnlap number - you could use that information to look up my home town.
Posts: 4358 | From: Bay Area, Calif | Registered: Mar 2003
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Galloping Granny
Shipmate
# 13814
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Offeiriad:
I remember being baffled for some time as a teenager by a languid English cleric who, when his phone rang, answered it by saying ears
I thought my Dad was saying "Aye there" when he answered the phone but it was really "Are you there?" – which doesn't seem logical somehow.
In a country town, early 40s, no Google, an argument about facts in the pub sometimes led to ringing the headmaster – shades of Oliver Goldsmith's Village Schoolmaster!* I remember Dad being asked which was the world's longest river, and whether there were polecats in New Zealand.
GG
*And still they gaz'd, and still the wonder grew
That one small head could carry all he knew"
(Yes, of course I had to look it up.)
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The Kingdom of Heaven is spread upon the earth, and men do not see it. Gospel of Thomas, 113
Posts: 2629 | From: Matarangi | Registered: Jun 2008
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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Galloping Granny:
Well, I have a Granny phone, which I use for phone calls and texts and as an alarm clock – bought in the UK as cheaply as possible in 2011. So I didn't know about newer ways of texting. Must get one of the family to show me. They get these deals that involve a new phone each year and spending the next few weeks getting the hang of it.
GG
I just bought a new phone having dropped the old one -and all I can say is to think very carefully before you get a smart phone, unless you have a geek on hand. I bought mine from a major retailer who have half an hour free training sessions for the technologically challenged.
My Uncle used to say, "Are you there?" It was listed in the phone book as one of the phrases you should use - which never made much sense to me either. I always wanted to answer "No".
One good way to score money to spend on sweets was to go into a phone box and push button B. It was amazing how many people just hung up if the call wasn't answered.
Huia
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Charity gives food from the table, Justice gives a place at the table.
Posts: 10382 | From: Te Wai Pounamu | Registered: Oct 2002
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Baptist Trainfan
Shipmate
# 15128
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Huia:
One good way to score money to spend on sweets was to go into a phone box and push button B. It was amazing how many people just hung up if the call wasn't answered.
Virtually everyone who uses our local Hospital car park ticket machine presses the "coin return" button to see if anything comes out ... and sometimes they get lucky!
Posts: 9750 | From: The other side of the Severn | Registered: Sep 2009
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