In article <telecom26.68.10@telecom-digest.org>,
nospam.kd1s@cox.nospam.net says:
> In article <telecom26.67.3@telecom-digest.org>, fatkinson@mishmash.com
> says:
>> On Wed, 7 Mar 2007 08:02:45 -0600, Charles Gray
>> <charles.gray@okstate.edu> wrote:
>>> Unless something has changed recently, you can have a phone number
>>> "unlisted unpublished", which means that it won't be printed in the
>>> phone directory and directory assistance will not give it out. You
>>> can have an "unpublished" number, which means that DA will give it
>>> out, but it won't be printed in the directory. I don't know if the
>>> charges are/were different or not. I've always had mine "unlisted
>>> unpublished".
>> I had a friend years ago who had the solution. He had his number
>> listed as 'Jack Daniels' and only told people he wanted to call him
>> about that. When he'd get telemarketing calls asking for Mr.
>> Daniels, he knew to immediately hang up.
>> That was a way around paying extra for an unlisted number.
>> Regards,
>> Fred
>> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That's not a bad idea; I have had my
>> telephone listed in the name of one of my cats (under 'K' as in
>> Katz, yet) for a long time. Occassionally, however, if the name is
>> 'too ridiculous sounding' telco sometimes requires you to send them
>> some proof of your name, such as a copy of driver's license, etc. I
>> also knew someone, years ago, who would always ask for a 'default
>> listed number' but do so a day or two after the directory publisher
>> had closed the entries for another year. So, he would never manage
>> to actually get himself listed in the phone directory, which was his
>> intent. PAT]
> I kid you not but there was once a listing in New England Telephone's
> white pages for a Bippin P. Dikshit.
> That could not be a real name. But then, I've run across several odd
> ones in my day so maybe it was.
> And friends had the license plates I-812 and OU-812 (I ate one too,
> and Oh you ate one too). That lasted for about a year until the DMV
> got wind of what they were talking about.
> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And you have probably heard of business
> places which want to be listed _first_ in the directory, so they call
> their business 'A' in order to be first. The difficult with being 'A'
> is there are so many who wish that designation, so telco's rules seem
> to be that when two or more last names amd surnames are identical, all
> the way down to the middle initial, then further sorting is done by
> the _street_ name, so that 'John J. Smith' of 1234 Any Street is
> listed prior to 'John J. Smith' of 1234 Somewhere Street, because A's
> come ahead of S's. Now if there are two or more John J. Smith's both
> living on Any Street, then the sort continues by _street number_ on
> 'Any' street, so that the party at 1234 Any Street is listed ahead of
> the party at 2345 Any Street. If a business listing has initials with
> mean anything the sort is done by what the intial 'means' in real
> life. So for example 'FBI' would be listed mid the 'Federal' (as the
> first word) listings, where a radio station (KIND or KOSU for example)
> would be listed at the first of the listings since 'K' by itself has
> no generally understood meaning. Companies with numerals as part of
> their name, i.e. '800 Service Corporation' generally go wherever the
> number spelled out would go. i.e.'Eight Hundred Service Corporation'
It even extends to the political. There is a well known case of a Ralph
Russo, becoming Ralph aRusso so his name would appear first on the
ballot.
T (nospam.kd1s@cox.nospam.net)