Have you ever noticed that when you make a phone call to a local number but dial a 1 first (as if it were a long-distance call), you get a message saying that you don’t need to dial the 1, but then you have to hang up and dial again? Similarly, if you dial a number without a 1 that is long distance, you get a message saying that it’s long distance and you need to dial a 1. But in both cases, your call does not go through. Why the hell not? If they want to give me a nastygram telling me what I should or should not have done, fine, but then put the damn call through. The technology exists. It’s not rocket science. That’s what happens on a cell phone, so why can’t they do it on a land line?

The other day, I was making some phone calls at work to local businesses in the K-W area. Since I don’t live in K-W, I don’t know where I can call locally and where is long-distance, so in a few cases, I added a 1 when I didn’t need to. Every time, I got the “You don’t need to dial a 1” message, so I had to hang up and re-dial the number without the 1. Very frustrating.

When I call home with my cell phone, the call display stores the number with a 1 for some reason. If I then display the number, click the “dial” button, and then pick up the receiver, it dials “1-905-…”, and then I get the message saying I didn’t need to dial the 1. At that point, I need to hang up and dial the number manually. For our cell phone numbers, that’s no big deal, but if it was a different number that I don’t have memorized, I have to write the number down on a piece of paper and then pick up the phone and dial it. So much for modern technology.

This posting is yet another example of the hard-hitting hold-no-punches journablogalism that you’ll find on Cut The Chatter. See, Whimsley, I can invent words too! Though yours kind of rolls off the tongue better than mine does.

Aside: Can you “channel” someone who’s not dead?

Update: Just to prove that I invented this word myself: