Item from the Past: Wrong Numbers

October 9, 1992

This is what happens if you accept an invitation from your students to go to an izakaya for food, drink and mirth one weekday evening after class. You have to face rising at 6 am the next morning with a chilly little headache and a mouth reeking of dry seaweed.

Some business has recently been assigned a phone number very similar to mine. At least it isn't a Domino's. Still, someone has 609.3446, one mis-stroke on a push-button phone from connecting with me. I received about a half-dozen calls for this business this afternoon. At first I answered the phone, telling the caller in reasonably good Japanese that he had the wrong number. Inevitably, the same caller would then call back. One dim bulb called three times, even after I specified that the last digit was wrong.

I was annoyed until I had the inspiration of picking up the phone and holding it close to my radio, which was turned up a little for the occasion. Then I had fun with it. No one every called back after receiving the radio on the other end: the jolt must have made them more careful in dialing the next time.

More fun with the phone: Last week I got a couple of calls from Prague. I'm only assuming the first was from there, but I'm sure of the second, since it was from Nate and Steve, who've been tooling around Central Europe lately as an escape from their stressful occupations, salesman and MD, respectively. I believe they had some spare crowns' credit on their phone card, and called Japan on impulse.

The first call, about a minute ahead of theirs, had better enigma value. I picked up the phone, and heard a series of rapid clicks. Then I could hear a conversation between two women in an unfamiliar language, vaguely Slavic. I said hello, but they seemingly couldn't hear me. After about 30 seconds, it disconnected. Then Steve and Nate called. Steve told me they had tried to call just before the successful connection. Seems like there are still a few bugs in the Czech phone system, though I'd guess its system is an exemplar among former Soviet satellites.