Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: John Cowan Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Thurbing (was: 800 Wrong Numbers) Message-ID: <2534@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 2 Jan 90 16:33:32 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Reply-To: John Cowan Organization: ESCC, New York City Lines: 29 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 2, message 12 of 12 In article <2492@accuvax.nwu.edu> John Higdon writes: >Idiot calls to my 800 number now fall into two categories: >1. Callers wishing to reach a local (SF) ferry and public >transportation service; >2. Callers wishing to reach the Hilton Hotel chain. >After blowing my stack when awakened at 5:45am by a woman who said, >"Isn't this ferries?" (I beg your pardon!!), I developed a new >approach. The moment I realize what the person who is on the line is >after, I take their reservation or give them what (made up) >information they seem to be seeking. Great fun! James Thurber, in one of his short stories, discusses a similar type of wrong-number strategy. His hero deals with a call from a woman who wants to know when the next train leaves for such-and-such a place. (Presumably she was meaning to call the train station.) He tells her that there will be no further train until 2:30 A.M. When she protests that such a departure hour is unreasonable, he says, "That's true, but as a special service to you, madam, we will send a taxi for you at 1:30 A.M. sharp. Please be ready to go when the taxi arrives." Mollified, the woman hangs up. What happened to her after that? Thurber doesn't say. But surely it must have changed her life in more ways than one.