BS: Phone numbers as words

Subject: Phone numbers as words
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 13 Aug 02 - 04:16 PM

What's that thing Americans do where they turn phone numbers into words - does it have a name?

Are there any songs using this facility?

Subject: RE: BS: Phone numbers as words
From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy
Date: 13 Aug 02 - 04:53 PM

it's just a mnemonic device. I don't know of a name for it, there must be one, though, and can't think of how any songs could use it, except some really cheesy country and western song that sings about someone's phone number. maybe we should write one. this phenomenon is used a lot these days to advertise sex/chat lines.

how about

'you can call me at 483 7800, or just dial guest naught, naught not my real name!'

Subject: RE: BS: Phone numbers as words
From: GUEST,Just Amy
Date: 13 Aug 02 - 06:46 PM

What specifically are you talking about? There is an old big band song called "Pennyslvania 6-5000." There is a rock and roll era song with the number 634-5789. Or is it something else that you need.

Subject: RE: BS: Phone numbers as words
From: John O'L
Date: 13 Aug 02 - 07:27 PM

It's called Nombrenom. Numbername. 666273666
788743 IMHO (4646)

Glenn

Subject: RE: BS: Phone numbers as words
From: Banjer
Date: 13 Aug 02 - 08:04 PM

I don't know what it is called, but I call it IRRITATING!!! Nothing I hate worse than trying to call a number and having to decode the stupid nword into numbers before dialing. In many cases, if there is a choice between calling a business with and one without the stupid name game in their numbers the one without will get my business.

Subject: RE: BS: Phone numbers as words
From: GUEST,Just Amy
Date: 13 Aug 02 - 08:13 PM

Oh, I get it. The reason they do this is because of number memory challenged like me. I can remember a word but not a number.

Subject: RE: BS: Phone numbers as words
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 13 Aug 02 - 08:27 PM

Strange how this never caught on in Britain.

25 years ago, phones had the each charachter of the alphabet designated to the appropriate numbers, so the idea was obviously there.

It never caught on, though

Jim

Subject: RE: BS: Phone numbers as words
From: Chip2447
Date: 14 Aug 02 - 01:27 AM

Hmmmmmm, I guess I shouldnt mention that Chip2447 uses the numbers on the phone to spell out a second chip? which also happens to be the last four digits of my phone number...it made it easy at the time...just call XXX-chip.
ChipChip(2447)

Subject: RE: BS: Phone numbers as words
From: Ebbie
Date: 14 Aug 02 - 01:35 AM

I'm with Banjer. It's an irritant to me. Not to mention that I often find it insufferably cute. For instance, one acquaintance's number for her candy-making business is 586-KISS. Another's number is 78-0 LISA. Come on! I usually have to take the time to translate it into numbers before I can even punch them in.

Reminds me of a grown woman who once introduced herself to me by saying, Just call me Punkin'. Needless to say, I called her nothin'.

Subject: RE: BS: Phone numbers as words
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 14 Aug 02 - 06:21 AM

I find it irritating to have to decode...but most also give the numbers...you just can't always have the numbers with you. A case in point...I have an unlisted number. It spells a dirty word, so all my friends can remember the number without having find where they wrote it down and go look it up. (All phone numbers have 7 digits. We used to be such a small town that everyone had the same first three digits.) Another friend has the same thing. I don't call her often enough to have the number memorised, but I sure can remember the word. There are sites on the net which will decode your number, give lots of possiblilites. The problem is if you have a zero or several zeroes in the number because there is no corresponding letter for them.

Subject: RE: BS: Phone numbers as words
From: Genie
Date: 14 Aug 02 - 11:33 AM

All you gotta do is decode the nombrenom ONCE -- if the full numeric wasn't given you, too. Then you can put that in your address book, etc.

And I agree that the nombrenom is not always all that helpful if it's not an obvious word like the person's or company's name. But some, like 1-800- SHOP TJ's for finding the nearest Trader Joe's store or 1-800-AAA- Help, can be very useful. It saves you having to memorize a meaningless string of numbers -- and then not being sure if "Let's see... was that 555-3210 or 555-3120?"

Even with less obvious ones, this kind of mnemonic can really help folks remember your number. I once had friends whose number was "Cat meux," and my own number was once "cheap VO." I never had trouble remembering those friends' number, and lots of my friends found mine very easy to remember, too.

As I said, you don't HAVE to keep translating the mnemonic every time you want to call the number. Just do it once and then you can throw away the memory aid, if that's your preference.

Subject: RE: BS: Phone numbers as words
From: Genie
Date: 14 Aug 02 - 11:34 AM

All you gotta do is decode the nombrenom ONCE -- if the full numeric wasn't given you, too. Then you can put that in your address book, etc.

And I agree that the nombrenom is not always all that helpful if it's not an obvious word like the person's or company's name. But some, like 1-800- SHOP TJ's for finding the nearest Trader Joe's store or 1-800-AAA- Help, can be very useful. It saves you having to memorize a meaningless string of numbers -- and then not being sure if "Let's see... was that 555-3210 or 555-3120?"

Even with less obvious ones, this kind of mnemonic can really help folks remember your number. I once had friends whose number was "Cat meux," and my own number was once "cheap VO." I never had trouble remembering those friends' number, and lots of my friends found mine very easy to remember, too.

As I said, you don't HAVE to keep translating the mnemonic every time you want to call the number. Just do it once and then you can throw away the memory aid, if that's your preference.

Subject: RE: BS: Phone numbers as words
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 14 Aug 02 - 11:42 AM

I don't think it is accurate to say that the idea never "caught on" in Britain, Jim.

For decades, all British city numbers had an alphabetic component as well as a numerical suffix. So if you lived in Mayfair, your phone number would be MAY ****, and so forth.

IMHO it was a far better system, and there was never any valid reason to change it.

Murray

Subject: RE: BS: Phone numbers as words
From: DonD
Date: 14 Aug 02 - 12:45 PM

I agree with everybody! (Am I eligible to run for public office?)

I love the fact thet I can call the NY Times by dialing NYTIMES but hate the fact that I have to squint and strain to read the letters on the wall phone to do it.

Speaking of the 'good old days' when all phones had a word/name designation before the number (in the city at least) as exemplified by Butterfield 8 in NY which was so well identified with a section of the East Side that John O'Hara used it as a book title (and then the Elizabeth Taylor movie) confident that everyone would understand the implications of where high-class hookers lived: I always wondered at the choice of words that weren't clearly geographical, and especially tried to pursue with Ma Bell at the time why an exchange was designated STAGG. I presumed it was to honor the legendary football coach but couldn't accept the need for the second G which never got dialed.

Having an easily remembered number has always been a business advantage, hence the desirability of even thousands a la PE-6-5000. The best one I'll never forget (although I can't recall the exchange word) was for an ice cream company in Paris which advertised on the screen at the 'cinema' between halves of the double feature as their product was being hawked in the aisles: the number was something like OPERA 0001, and the audience would unfailingly roar out with the closing announcement -- 'zay-ro zay-ro zay-ro, (pause) aann!' That's marketing!

Subject: RE: BS: Phone numbers as words
From: mike the knife
Date: 14 Aug 02 - 01:44 PM

It's actually been a guilty pleasure of mine for a long time. When I have a # that I must remember, I try to make a word(s) out of it. I never seem to have any luck getting a cool phone #. A good friend of mine once had "hug nuts" as a #. Never forgot it.

Subject: RE: BS: Phone numbers as words
From: Mrrzy
Date: 14 Aug 02 - 03:18 PM

867-53099999999999999 - much more musical than, say, TOP-LE0Z, isn't it?

I don't mind having to figure out the number from the word, because I can at least remember the word...

Subject: RE: BS: Phone numbers as words
From: Giac
Date: 14 Aug 02 - 04:24 PM

For more than you ever wanted to know about names and numbers, Click here

Chicago also had (has?) a Butterfield 8- exchange. I always thought that was the movie's locale. Learn something new every day on the 'Cat.

~;o)
Mary