I don't give my address. For a phone number I give out an old one.
I smile and say "no, I'd rather not give give you my phone number."
You just say, "I'd rather not, thanks." They know that it's just so you can get annoying junk mail/calls, and they'll happily skip it.
Often I just give them bogus info. If everyone did this, they'd stop asking.
I give them ogged's info. I don't want 1000 pounds of manure showing up in some database connected to my information.
B is right.
I know you're trying to give me a heart attack, Ben, but I'm not *that* old.
I know you're trying to give me a heart attack, Ben, but I'm not *that* old.
Eh, I'm probably not even in your will.
I give them the phone number to the very store in which they're working and then watch the preeeetty magic smoke come out of the register.
Or the number for the time.*
*Actual time and not, say, Morris Day and The ___.
And yes, I've noticed that the Container Store does that. The first time that happened, the woman in front of me was THRILLED they'd asked because she 'didn't want to miss any sales.' And I just said no thanks, and then felt like a shitheel for not being as excited as my predecessor.
I just politely refuse; the most insistent place used to be R/d/o Sh/ck, for some reason.
Why are we googleproofing that business' name, Idp?
I enjoy being asked for my Zip code, though. I like to think the checkout clerk is thinking "I swan! Ain't had a 612'er since the eighties! What brings him 'round these parts, I reckon?"
I usually say, "Really? My phone number?" and they inevitalby offer me an out, like, "You don't have to. I wouldn't."
But seriously folks, I say "Do you need it?" or "Is it required?" and that's the end of it.
That's no way to pick up chicks, Ogged.
Often I just give them bogus info shoot them in the head. If everyone did this, they'd stop asking.
Then they say "no," and I say, "I'll give it to you anyway, baby" and rattle off my number while stroking my crotch.
Better, B?
Hamilton-Lovecraft: no friend to the proletariat.
What are these stores that ask for your phone number? I don't think this has ever happened to me. Zip code, yes, but not phone number.
24: That's no way to pick up chicks, Ogged.
28: Rejoice! (See two posts down.)
24. that's the only way to pick up chicks, ogged.
28: What? "Do you speak Farsi?" doesn't work anymore?!
"Do you speak Farsi?"
I'm totally going to use this on the Iranian lawyer.
And if she says no, try "How about Luri?"
No, ask "Do you speak Luri?" in Farsi.
No, ogged, you follow the lawyer when she's shopping, then at check out, make a mental note of the phone number she gives. Later, call and hang up. Then, call back and leave an awkward message.
Come on, pal. You've done this before!
You: "Do you speak Farsi?"
Her: "Why? Do you?"
You: "My tongue can do many wonderful things."
Try it and thank me later.
I give them my friendliest smile, and say "Come on, you're not going to *refuse* to sell this to me if I don't, are you?"
You made me laugh, Stanley. Too bad I have to kill you now.
I bet they love that to bits, McK.
38: What would you do if they said yes?
Of course, you all talk about phone numbers.
What would you do if they said yes?
Actually, that might be for the best - I've got too much crap already anyway.
Would you really prefer to talk about politics in academia?
No, not at all, when we could talk about how to pronounce our phone numbers in Dutch!
I was very pleasantly surprised a month ago when I received a batch of coupons based on my past purchasing patterns. Used every one of them, and I am not a coupon guy.
Sure, I'll give personal info to retail outlets. I ain't hiding anything from Walmart, even if I thought I could.
Howabout if instead we talked about writing a too-ambitious paper for a professor whose advisor the paper criticizes, and being antsy on that account? We could also talk about doing successively less work per day for each day you work on the paper.
But then, I comment under my real name. Why are the rest of y'all so paranoid?
Howabout if instead we talked about writing a too-ambitious paper for a professor whose advisor the paper criticizes, and being antsy on that account?
Now why would someone choose to do that?
26: Radio Shack. Electronics stores in general, IME.
I was at Staples today and they offered me a card. I gave them the former phone number of a friend of mine that worked for me once when I was at Ralph's and couldn't find my card.
Just now, I reverse-looked up the number to see if it had been reassigned, and the dude lives in an apartment building that I used to live in. Funny.
I guess I just don't buy a lot of electronics. I've bought some stuff at Best Buy, but I don't recall them asking for my number.
My real name happens to be "bob mcmanus" but when I got here, I found out it was already taken.
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The story about dropping his political affiliation in at dinner and then losing the job because he was... Republican? Either he's lying or he dropped it in having already lost the job to being an enormous tool.
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I suggest (202) 456-1414. It's the White House switchboard. I also suggest 20500, the WH zip code.
When I fail to be so creative, I usually alter the phone number by a digit or two.
My address:
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
phone: 202-456-1414
I have sometimes varied this with the Secretary of Defense's address and DoD's main number.
53: he? who are you talking about?
I also suggest 20500, the WH zip code.
If this means, not the zip including both the WH and other things nearby, but rather the zip which is exclusively the WH's, they should have given it a better number to have for itself, like 80085 or 17760 or something.
md -- do you have it (the WH phone number) memorized? I do, but I think it's because it's so fluid to remember.
Unfogged Enlightenment: When one moves past seeing the posts.
Ben has reaches this elevated status.
58: They were presumably constrained by the fact that DC zip codes start with 2.
I had to check the phone number. Slowed me down. Drat!
I have given clerks work phone numbers: for other people's offices at DoD.
My grocery store asks for a phone number in lieu of a saving card. If I enter a number, I get the discounts. So I use a phone number.
The Pentagon and Dulles airport also have their own DC zip codes.
they should have given it a better number to have for itself, like 80085 or 17760 or something
When the far-right Republikaner party was doing well in Germany in the 1980s, they won seats in the municipal councils of several cities. When they won seats in the Cologne city council, the city had to provide office space for their representatives at city hall. The bureaucrat charged with setting up their phone lines cleverly assigned them extensions 1933, 1939, and 1945.
Huh! Even though they aren't in DC?
Look, after 15+ years at this shit, if they want you they can find you (if they don't already know you: it is your friends, family, and co-workers that usually fuck you over). It is as rare as lightning striking that any stranger will want you.
I've heard that the big dorm at UT has its own zip code.
Kerry had a one vote margin because the rest were voting for Nader? It seems almost tautological that academia is dominated by liberals. Of course it is. Even the snarkers don't bother to dispute that.
I assume 67=>65, but 67=>66 works equally well.
Huh! Even though they aren't in DC?
IIRC O'Hare airport has a Chicago ZIP code even though it is surrounded by other municipalities. Perhaps the municipal boundaries run the length of I-90 to the airport.
72: They do -- sort of! It's weird -- a strip of Chicago runs straight west out Devon (I think) and then encircles the airport.
RFTS.
Dulles is a federal reservation connected to DC by the Toll Road; but I think the connection breaks because of I-66. The zip code for Dulles is 20041. Obviously a DC zip code and the PO says the canonical city name is Washignton, DC.
Oh, National (DCA) has a 20001 zip code and is also formally Washington DC. Odd. Every map I've seen says DCA is in Virginia. It is mostly built on fill and since DC owns the river that might explain it.
The Pentagon doesn't have DCA's excuse. It just is that way. 20050 and 20301.
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does this mean "to respond to the original post"? I was here when it was introduced, but I was sievey.
Asilon originally used it to mean "pause" as she needed to interject a bit of off-topic information, but didn't want to hijack the thread.
No, it means to break into the conversation with an interruption.
No, Kerry beat Bush by a single vote; there were no Nader voters.
I usually say "i don't have email" or "I don't have a phone"
they sort of pause for a bit, but don't try asking again
RFTS.
I get confused when it's all capitalized like this. Read the fucking, no wait, read fucking the ... ess-something, but what?
77: I missed that. Very clever of Asilon.
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Announces the OT interruption, or pause
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resumes.
Was how I thought she did it, although she used a character.
Very clever of Asilon.
I thought PK made this up?
Credit to PK I think. And credit to his mother for translating it into an icon (a pair of pipes) that hasn't been banned.
Asilon used the Play symbol ▶ and others have translated it to |>
I keep waiting for Ogged to put his foot down.
What, Asilon's stealing PK's moves now? Tsk.
Oops.
No, credit to AWB for coming up with the textual representation. Credit to Asilon for actually using it.
BitchPHD (inspired by PK's non-obscene gesture), Asilon, and AWB: women of invention.
Oh man, but the obscene gesture he made up is so awesome.
You pull out the pockets of your pants, see, and then you make an obscene gesture, and that's your impersonation of an elephant.
people on the phone are always polite and wish me to have a good day
we have a very meaningful conversations
i answer all of their questions and get a lot of spam
It's a little hard to describe. You make a "v for victory" sign, but with your fingers pointed down to the ground. Turn your hand around so that the palm side is facing your viewer. Then dance the two V fingers back and forth on the table a little, and say in a sing-song voice, "I'm moooooning you!"
Best done with both hands at once.
PK is awesome. Too bad he's in for N solid years of getting his ass kicked in school.
97: Alternatively, B will send him to Waldorf, and he'll totally rule that place.
So far, his ass is unkicked. There are a couple of kids who tease him a bit, but the teacher--who is a young cool dude that all the kids worship--is totally on PK's side and plans to bring in pictures of himself from a couple years back with hair longer than PK's. So.
The beatings may be fierce, but it'll be worth it when he starts a band and becomes the idol of girls with even longer hair, if any exist.
Bitch, you should totally give PK pigtails. Who says he can't have pigtails? The Patriarchy?
One of my favorite pictures of him is from when he was two, and yes, he has pigtails in it. These days, though, he insists on one long ponytail, which sometimes we braid at night to keep it from getting tangled.
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Ten years ago one might have thought it ludicrous that eventually Warner Bros. Records itself would invest the huge bandwidth necessary to show streaming video of songs like the one in 100, from an album that entered cutout bins in 1995. How could they possibly benefit from that?
The long tail. Think about it, won't you? Thank you.
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Warner Bros. Records itself would invest the huge bandwidth necessary to show streaming video of songs like the one in 100
All WB had to do was upload it. Youtube's footing the bandwidth bill, no?
Er, yes. bandwidth =/= server space.
I see why the reporter used Rosenberg's quotes. Crazy academics.
Karen R. Rosenberg, an associate professor and chairwoman of the anthropology department at the University of Delaware, characterized Dr. Whitcome's work as "way cool." Dr. Rosenberg, who studies the evolution of childbirth, said the paper was the first published research that asked whether pregnancy caused evolutionary changes in the skeleton. "In hindsight," she said, "Duh, of course it does."
Too bad he's in for N solid years of getting his ass kicked in school.
Ass-kicking is less about how non-conformist you are and more about whether you appear to be a good victim. Plenty of non-conformists don't give off the potential victim vibe.
107: Smartassery brings the ass-kicking down as well. I was never all that good a victim -- too far down the Asperger's continuum to react interestingly -- but boy was I despised.
PK, alas, really does get very angry. I'm trying to get him to realize that letting people *know* they're annoying him is not a great idea.
Then again, the two kids who annoy him most were playing jump rope with him after school today, so. Plus, they tease him for being slightly less hyperboyish than they are--but, you know, jump rope? In a group?
I said nothing, but I was pleased.
Playing jump rope with him after school.
110: No.
You've met PK. Is he the easily bullied type, do you think?
Not many six-year-olds have threatened to murder me, no.
Well, you *were* kind of asking for it.
Usually Ogged kills them before they have a chance. They are dangerous, being one year older than five-year-olds.
Which is why he tries to kill them when they're five, if possible.
Which is why he tries to kill them when they're five, if possible.
Watch out, Knecht's daughter!
Actually Ogged was amazingly charming.
Except for trying to put PK into the trash, I mean.
Can't B be put in jail for exposing a child to unnecessary risk?
107 is true both at school and more generally.
For example, there was a guy at my school used to wear dresses to school -- he was straight, but this was the New Romantic period and he was one of those kids who likes pissing people off. No-one fucked with him. He gave off heavy 'do not fuck with me' vibes.
66: KR, do you have any linkable sources? I'd like to put that story up on Fistful of Euros...
People used to just say, "I have an unlisted number."
Did you ever wonder . . . Why don't people say that anymore?
121: Doug, I don't have anything linkable, but I read this anecdote in a book called Deutschland Ganz Rechts: Sieben Monate unter den Republikanern in BRD & DDR
I couldn't swear that I got all the details right, because it was a long time ago that I read it.
Too bad he's in for N solid years of getting his ass kicked in school.
This is completely backwards. If you are a very popular kid, you can get away with literally anything. In fact, half your class will take it up, or consider it. If you are a class victim, there is literarlly no amount of conformist behaviour that will save you from the bullying and beatings --- your best bet is that someone else diverts attention.
There's a spectrum in between. Mostly, the only kids who really socially benefit from conforming to percieved norms are the ones with marginal social positions.
48
"But then, I comment under my real name. Why are the rest of y'all so paranoid?"
They like to think they are striking mighty blows against the man.
Some of us would genuinely get fired.
James, not everbody relishes the thought of, say, a tenure commitee discussing the amount of time one spends here. Just saying.
Some of us would genuinely get fired.
Yeah, it would suck for you to get fired before you get the satisfaction of quitting, wouldn't it, LB?
I have the same name as a better man than I, who occasionally comments. I gave up hoping to strike mighty blows against anybody years ago.
does 128 mean to suggest you'd have been happy with all commenting done under your legal name, Knecht?
130: No, I think 128 was a perfectly accurate comment on my professional ambitions/lack thereof.
I do it in homage to my many unnamed and unknown predecessors.
does 128 mean to suggest you'd have been happy with all commenting done under your legal name
Are you kidding me? I came a hair's breadth from getting fired this morning even without my employer reading my comments.
What about "sure, can I have *your* phone number?"
For the zip code question, Sir Kraab alway says "90210", which always cracks me up.
Sadly though, most of the cashiers these days are either too young or too old to get the reference.