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It’s in the book

the phonebookphonebookGot home last night to find a brand new phonebook on the doorstep. Fair took me by surprise as I didn’t realise they still did them.

What struck me was the size of it. Tiny. Thinner than my index finger. I wondered whether this was because they didn’t have every Lincoln number in it but they must have because mine was there which scientifically proves everyone’s number is there. Presumably fewer businesses are advertising in it these days.

When Anne and I first bought a house together she sorted out the phone line. It was before we got married and when she filled out the entry for the telephone directory she quite naturally used her own name. This caused problems because nobody could find our number. They all expected it to be under my name – HT Davies. Even the H used to cause problems – many people don’t know that Tref is my middle name. We changed the entry the following year1.

In those days people actually used to use the phone book. The phrase “it’s in the book” was quite common. That was before people had their own mobile phones and before the internet. Nowadays not only do people rarely use the home phone line but the concept of looking up someone’s telephone number “in the book” is redundant.

If I need to call someone I will already have their mobile number in my mobile directory. If I don’t have that number then I will likely ask someone to text me so that I know where they are or I’ll drop them a line on Facebook or Twitter.

That’s all.

PS Some of you may think the photo would have been better positioned upright in portrait mode because you keep tilting your head to try and read it. It’s like that because this blog likes to push the boundaries and sometimes that is uncomfortable for people. Also the header pic is slightly out of focus – that’s either artistic or it’s because I couldn’t get it to focus that close up on the phone – you decide 🙂

1 that’s the last concession she ever had to make – I know who the boss is in our house 🙂

Trefor Davies

By Trefor Davies

Liver of life, father of four, CTO of trefor.net, writer, poet, philosopherontap.com

7 replies on “It’s in the book”

I was considering suing BT after I too recently discovered not one but two of these literature works carefully left lying on my doorstep as I walked out one morning. I realised after damn nearly breaking my neck over them that my criticism of BT Group over the years might have been the reason said delivery person hadn’t raised my awareness to them. Likewise I too was amazed they still did them.

Incidentally I like the artistic perspective that you used for this blog post and fully expect to see you in the National Gallery London sometime soon standing beside your bean can sculpture that depicts landlines post modernism 😉

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