From: whheydt@pbhya.PacBell.COM (Wilson Heydt)
Subject: Re: SCA character (was: OOP dancing)
Reply-To: whheydt@PacBell.COM (Wilson Heydt)
Organization: Pacific * Bell, San Ramon, CA
Date: Mon, 2 Nov 1992 23:14:40 GMT

In article <1d47khINNpc@agate.berkeley.edu> cozzlab@garnet.berkeley.edu writes:
>Well, it easily could be, considering that the following IS TRUE.
>
>[I was waiting for Hal to post this, but maybe he's too busy...]

It's close.

>People like Hal, who didn't have any previous field job with PacBell,
>got assigned whatever (a) was left over and (b) they could learn in a
>hurry, which usually meant DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE.

And it's frequently dreaded.  Mind you, doing DA is real exciting for
about the first 2 hours.  After that you have a fair idea of what
you're doing and it gets real dull real fast--except for the times
when the strikers try to throw you curves....

>I'll leave it to Hal, if he chooses, to tell his large compendium of D.A.
>horror stories.  (Keep in mind that a sizeable number of people who
>call D.A. do so because they can't read.)

The quip we had was that they all want bars in the evening and jails
in the morning....  It's a little unnerving when someone not only
wants a specific jail--by name--but also knows which department they
want to talk to.

>Anyway, here was Hal doing D.A. one lonely evening and someone called up
>and asked for the phone number for Leslie Fish.
>
>You all know of Leslie Fish, famed filksinger and guitar-manipulator,
>whom a consortium of fans brings out to Pennsic every year.  For reasons
>of her own Leslie _never_ has a listed number.  Now, Hal knows Leslie and
>knew where she was living at the time, and with whom, and could have found
>_their_ phone number... but instead he went through the motions and told
>the caller there was no listing.

It didn't, at first occur to me.  After not finding the number I asked
if that was "leslie Fish, the filk singer".  On being told it was I
started asking *why* they wanted to get hold of her...

>"Oh, gosh!" agonized the caller.  "I've just got to get hold of her!"
>
>"Well..." Hal said, "uh, what makes it so urgent?"
>
>"I'm her ride to a concert this weekend, and I've got to tell her where to
>meet us!"

Actually, they were staying with her, had gone out grocery shopping
and had a flat tire.

>"Oh," Hal said.  "Well, in that case, why don't you call (number) and explain
>to the person there why you need to get hold of her.  Maybe she can help."
>
>The number in question was that of Hal's sister Andrea, co-owner of Firebird
>Arts and Music, the company Leslie records with.  So the caller called
>Andrea, Andrea screened her story and decided it was OK, gave her Leslie's
>number, Leslie got to the concert in plenty of time, and they all lived
>happily ever after.

The funniest part was.... Andrea got the call and gave them Fish's
number.  Then she got to wondering how these folks had gotten *her*
number and called our house.  Dorothy told her I was still at
work--and *then* it clicked.

While I was on strike duty, we had a Lunar Eclipse.  That's when I
found out that there's a "Temple of Set" in San Francisco (all the
loons seem to come out during an eclipse....).

Schools are particularly difficult to locate in the directory.  Some
are regular listings by name.  Some are listed by District name.  Some
are listed as part of the city they're in.  There is no "Taiwanese
Consulate" in San Francisco (since recognizing the mainland government
we don't have diplomatic relations with Taipei).  There is, however,
the "Chinese-American Friendship Association"....  (That one was an
early favorite with the strikers....)  San Quentin Prison--which
you've all probably heard of, along with Alcatraz (Federal) and
Sing-Sing (in New York)--is listed as being in the town of San Quentin
as "The House At San Quentin".

        --Hal

        Hal Ravn, Province of the Mists, West Kingdom
        Wilson H. Heydt, Jr.,  Albany, CA 94706,  510/524-8321 (home)
--
Hal Heydt                    |    "Boycott Time-Warner"
Analyst, Pacific*Bell        |         --J. Danforth Quayle
510-823-5447                 |    "... kill all the lawyers."
whheydt@pbhya.PacBell.COM    |         --William Shakespeare