RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30601, 18 November 1964, Page 28

RANDOM REMINDER

THUMB-SCREWS

So far, no-one has, apparently, bothered to complain to the Post Office about the complications introduced by its recent conversion of many telephone numbers to sixfigure units. Our indefatigable research department assesses the average distance travelled by the dialling finger at five inches, on the basis that the average number is half-way round the dial. In the good old days, that meant 25 inches (2ft lin) each time one went to the ‘phone: which, of course, represented for the average woman something like the distance Mrs Valerie Young can put the shot (on a good day), in tractive telephoning effort between 9 a.m. and 11 p.m. Now this has been increased to 2ft 6in a time, or much more if all the numbers are ones and twos. Surely the Post Office

technicians must be aware of the threat of telephone fatigue resulting in even more wrong numbers being dialled than before — an unfortuate state which must also develop simply because of the extra number which has to be carried in the head after the eyes have left the printed word, and that in turn stems mainly from the oversight of the Post Office in not insisting that all subscribers should store their telephone books on a sort of lectern instead of hanging them from hooks which make it virtually impossible for the books to be consulted while the actual dialling is going on, unless one has the advantage of possessing three legs. All in all, six numbers seem to us to be highly undesirable. Perhaps they carry with them the faint suggestion that Christchurch has become a really big city, but sophistication

of this sort is gossamer thin. Beside, we'll soon have a parking building. On the other hand, wrong numbers, now so much more commonplace, have their appeal. They offer an insight into the race. Some people who have dialled wrong numbers suffer fits of uncontrollable rage, and they are clearly under the belief that the answering party is at fault for not being someone else. Others, of course, are embarrassingly apologetic. When two such people cross lines, it can take minutes for the conversation to cease. And sometimes, there is a disappointment in the voice of the party called unnecessarily which hints at the emptiness and loneliness of many lives. One more thing. Has the Post Office considered what its six-figure numbers are doing to those who regularly dial with their thumbs?