area code splitting: the true number of the beast
I don't like area code splitting. I think it's the work of the devil. EVIL! EVIL! I have a head for numbers--I remember nearly every phone number I've ever had--and I was pretty good at knowing which major North American cities were served by which area codes. Those days are long-gone.
A few years ago, I saw an article in The Atlantic Monthly explaining the origin and planning of area codes. With rotary-dial phones, the easiest area codes to dial were the ones with the least amount of finger travel. Here is a picture of a phone in my office. According to Peter, I use it for "points emergencies."
The biggest metropolitan areas were given the best codes. So, New York City got 212, the Los Angeles area got 213, Chicago 312...
This of course means that San Francisco (415) was better than Toronto (416), and that Toronto was better than Springfield Missouri (417).*
Eventually, area codes were expanded to include zero as a middle digit. Dialing zero on a rotary dial phone took about an hour. People often died while trying to reach an operator in an emergency.* Thank goodness for touch-tone.
In time, thanks to a lot of poseurs, teenaged girls, and drug dealers, we had about forty trillion cell phones and pagers. Add in the anal-retentive, squatting phone companies, and we soon exhausted our area codes. We incorporated digits 2 through 8 (9 is being reserved for future phone numbers that will be about the same length as pi) into the middle digit of wonky splits and overlays--and we're still running out of numbers. I don't know where the fuck I'm calling anymore. Fuckers.
* just kidding
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i feel so guilty now.
I feel ya on the area code splitting!
Poop on that!
I remember when I was a kid we only needed to dial 5 numbers to make a call within my town.
::grins at shiny 416 cell::
and don't ever leave okay?
i get attached to you folks too much.