"Dead air" calls?

[MechAg94]

The do not call lists are a joke. I'm on every DNC I can get on and I still get flooded with calls. Virtually none of the calls are coming from a valid number because it's so easy to spoof a number display on Caller ID.

Hell, more than once my cell phone has "called" itself.

One trick I noticed the scumbags starting a couple of years ago was to mime the area code and prefix of the number that they're calling.

My phone is 703-919-xxxx.

So, the scumbags make it look as if the call is coming from 703-919-1111, I guess in hopes that people will look at it and go "Oh my! One of my neighbors must be calling me!"

That might have worked in the days before cell phones became so pervasive, because there's virtually no zoning on how numbers are given out, especially now that we've dipped into the mobile device only area codes.

I got my cell number years before they had to start creating all these new area codes to deal with the explosion of devices that needed their own numbers.

The do not call lists provide a handy call list. 

My parents might get rid of their land line at some point.  When I visit, they are constantly getting calls which they ignore unless it is a number they recognize. 

[Cliffh]

We've still got a land line.  We've been here since '08, the cell signal sucked then and while it has improved, it hasn't been much of an improvement.  It doesn't seem to matter which phone or provider, none of our guests/visitors get good phone reception.

[230RN]

When I lived in Boulder, I remember when you could address a letter to someone in Boulder as  Name, Street address, and the word "City."

I ran across my old draft card the other day while sorting through stuff and it had my address as Flushing 65, New York. The Zip Code nowadays is 11365, so it looks like they kept the 65 at any rate.

Say, you think I should still be carrying that card on my person?  I noticed it says I should, and nobody ever said not to.  I hate to think I've been breaking Selective Service laws for over 60 years.   I hope the penalties aren't on a per diem basis.

Maybe I'd better not sign this...

[K Frame]

"When I lived in Boulder, I remember when you could address a letter to someone in Boulder as  Name, Street address, and the word "City."

I lived in a small town in Central Pennsylvania growing up, about 2,500 people, with another couple thousand "out the valley" with the same town name/zipcode.

The local post office had two collection boxes, one of which was labeled "Marysville Only Delivery" or something like that.

It still had to be stamped, but you could pretty much use just about any address format you wanted...

Stuff would be delivered if it had Library, Mayor, Moose or something similar for one of the businesses. Didn't need to include the street address or zip code.

If you wanted it to go to a person, you could write the first name and street address, or the last name and just the street.

Or, in my family's case, we were the only Irwins in town, so stuff would get to us with just Irwin. It was invariably for my Dad, who was a Civil Engineer and did a lot of work in town.

You could also send stuff addressed like that from your house by having the postal carrier pick it up. He'd scan it and if he saw that it was local delivery it went into a separate section of his mail bag.

Pretty sure that they don't do that anymore. Town has grown a lot since I was a kid.

The Post Master had started as a rural mail deliverer in town as a teen in the late 1920s. Went away for service in the military during WW II, came back and went right back to work for the post office and eventually became post master. The guy knew everyone in town. Finally retired in the middle 1980s.

[Hawkmoon]

"When I lived in Boulder, I remember when you could address a letter to someone in Boulder as  Name, Street address, and the word "City."

I lived in a small town in Central Pennsylvania growing up, about 2,500 people, with another couple thousand "out the valley" with the same town name/zipcode.

You had a zip code when you were growing up?

It must be nice to be young.

[K Frame]

We had indoor plumbing and central heating, too.

Oh the joys of modern life!