Re: USAGE: (CHAT) Place names (was) USAGE: Knock and knock-knock

On Thu, 12 Oct 2000, Nik Taylor wrote:

> In Florida, there's:
>
> Hollywood
Named after Hollywood, California; the promoter of the new city hoped it
would become a center of film production (never happened).

ObPersonal: My wife Gale, in an earlier incarnation, was a long-distance
telephone operator for GTE (the local phone company in Florida).  During
this period, it was not possible for telephone subscribers to directly
dial to other cities: instead, one called the long-distance operator
by dialing "0", and asked for a particular city.  She (almost always "she")
connected you with an inbound operator in that city, who then connected
you with the number you wanted.

In the nature of things, most long-distance calls were in fact to nearby
cities, so "Hollywood, please" almost always meant Hollywood, Florida.
Gale then moved to Denver, three-quarters of a continent away, and got
a similar job with Mountain Bell there.  She got an urgent request for
"Hollywood", and automatically connected the caller to Hollywood, Florida,
ut est mos.  Of course, it was Hollywood, California that was wanted!
Very bad.

--
John Cowan                                   cowan@ccil.org
One art/there is/no less/no more/All things/to do/with sparks/galore
        --Douglas Hofstadter