telephone | Mostly Bright Ideas

Browsing All posts tagged under »telephone«

Say Hey! How Did You Get This Number?

August 15, 2013

Here’s the whole story about Willie Mays. But be prepared, because it’s a tale filled with drama and suspense. Okay, no it isn’t. Actually, it’s filled with stupidity and hurt feelings. And a sense of relief that caller-ID wasn’t yet available. Willie was a baseball player, if you didn’t know. One of the greatest, in […]

Wandering Aimlessly Down Memory Lane

June 12, 2012

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I’m getting old. I thought I was getting old ten years ago, but that was nothing compared to now. On medical forms and written surveys, I’m almost in the last age group, and at some stores I qualify for a senior citizen discount. I’ve been around a long time. Yet I can still remember when […]

On Being Neurotic (Part 1) (Will I Have Enough for Two Parts?) (Who Am I Kidding?)

May 27, 2012

I’ve been neurotic for a long time, at least since I was four, when my mother had to cut the feet off my pajamas because they were worn down to bits of thin, rubbery fabric hanging on by threads. I nearly lost my mind. It wasn’t so much an issue of fashion, but safety. A […]

Zerophobia, and Other Fears I Made Up

December 3, 2010

We had two heavy, black rotary dial telephones in our house. My older brothers told me that if I picked up the receiver and dialed zero, the operator would answer. This scared me, the idea that no matter when I picked up that phone, she would be there, waiting. “Operator. Can I help you?” Operator. […]

Unsolved Mystery: The Wrong Number

June 16, 2010

Here’s one of those puzzles of life I wish I could solve before I die. Someone calls, I answer, and they ask for Betty. I tell them they have the wrong number, that there’s no one named Betty here. They apologize and hang up. Forty-five seconds later, the phone rings again. (We usually get about […]