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I know I said last Friday’s Happy Hour was the last of 2008. But this morning my wife is stuck working, the baby is napping, the dog still exhausted. So before I turn my attention to gift-box removal, here are a few questions for discussion.
1. A family friend was recently in Egypt. While gazing at the pyramids, something else astonishing wandered into view—someone with whom he attended high school. They hadn’t seen each other in over twenty years. I’m always fascinated by these kinds of stories, probably because my own pale in comparison. I once ran into a (New Jersey) high school friend at a McDonald’s in North Myrtle Beach. Good times. What’s the strangest place you’ve unexpectedly run into an old friend?
2. Have you ever done anything truly memorable on New Year’s Eve?
3. Early in my freshman year of college, I started getting strange phone calls very late at night. “Do you know what your phone number is?” the presumably drunken caller would ask. I did. 613-3425. What of it?
The calls continued every few days, like an annoying teaser campaign for a movie I’d never consider watching. But at 3am one morning came the grand reveal: “Your number is 613-DICK!”
The phone numbers in these dorms don’t change, so the caller knew what room was associated with this riotous number. One night I heard someone writing on my whiteboard, so my roommate and I opened the door. The pip-squeakiest guy I’d ever seen had written “Your Number Is,” but our mere presence startled him. (Our mere presence should not have intimidated anybody.) Rather than finish his message, the prankster returned the Dry Erase marker to its snug little holder and took off running. The calls stopped.
Did you ever have a phone number that spelled something? (Or did you ever harass someone who did?)
4. What’s your favorite episode of your favorite TV show?
[See previous 'Friday Happy Hour' transcripts.]
Comments (71)
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I spent some of my childhood years in Hawaii, though I was born in Georgia. While in Hawaii, there was a kid that was in student council with me, as well as on my little sister’s volleyball team. Good kid, nice kid- because of being on the same sports team, or parents had met. He moved away from Hawaii during the summer, never really heard where.
Six months later we moved back to Georgia, and had just arrived at a subdivision party to meet some neighbors. Whose house was it at? The aforementioned kid’s house, who had moved from my elementary school district to our new neighborhood 5,000 miles away. Weird, but it was also nice to see a familiar face!
posted by joanna on 12-26-2008 at 12:02 pm
1. I bumped into a friend from college at the Baseball Hall of Fame. He’d moved to California and I stayed in Massachusetts. We were both taking our sons, who were both 6 at the time.
2. Not really. Hosted a big party to celebrate Y2K, but it was no different than a lot of other parties.
3. Not that I know of, but I will spend the next hour looking at a phone to find out. (This is what passes for productivity today. I can’t believe our office is open.)
4. Always been a big Cheers fan. I like the episode with John Cleese.
posted by Andy on 12-26-2008 at 12:04 pm
My home number spells HOG-FATT (the extra T is for Tacky!)
posted by Amy on 12-26-2008 at 12:10 pm
1. This Jersey boy was touring a musical theatre production in Europe when one evening in Kiev, after the show I received a backstage visit from an old friend – who just happened to be in the same city and country and decided on a whim to see a show… freaky.
2. Most memorable New Year Eve… hmmm… well there was that one with Melina… same city as number 1.
3. When I lived moved to CA, I discovered that the phone company assigned me the phone number GET-MATT.
4. Favorite episode – “The West Wing” Two Cathedrals (2001) – it had an extended scene where President Josiah Bartlet prays in the National Cathedral. But it doesn’t begin, “Our Father … ” It starts by calling God a “son of a bitch” and a “feckless thug.” And it gets worse from there. But perhaps to keep the NBC switchboard from blowing a fuse, they had Bartlet (played by Martin Sheen) deliver the prayer in Latin:
President Bartlet (Martin Sheen): You’re a son of a bitch you know that? She bought her first new car and you hit her with a drunk driver. What, is that supposed to be funny? “You can’t conceive nor can I the strangeness of the mercy of God,” says Graham Green. I think I know who’s ass he was kissing there, ’cause I think your’re just vindictive. What was Josh Lyman, the warning shot? That was my son, what did I ever do to yours but praise his glory and praise his name? There’s a tropical storm that’s gaining speed and power. They say we haven’t had a storm this bad since you took out that Tender ship of mine in the North Atlantic last year, sixty-eight crew. You know what a Tender ship does? It fixes the other ships, and, delivers the mail, that’s all it can do. Gracias Tibiago Domine. Yes, I lied. It was a sin, I’ve committed many sins. Have I displeased you, you feckless thug? Three point eight billion new jobs that wasn’t good? Bailed out Mexico, Increased foreign trade, 30 million new acres of land for conservation, put Mendoza on the bench, we’re not fighting a war, I’ve raised 3 children. That’s not enough to buy me out of the doghouse?
Hace credam a deo pio? A deo iusto, a deo scico? Cruciatus in crucem. Tuus in terra sertvus, nuntius fui. Officium perfecti. Cruciatus in crucem. Eas in crucem.
(Translation: Am I really to believe that these are the acts of a loving God? A just God? A wise God? To hell with your punishments. I was your servant here on Earth. And I spread your word and I did your work. To hell with your punishments. To hell with you.)
posted by MattG on 12-26-2008 at 12:14 pm
When I was living in the college dorm, we had three-digit extensions. Mine was 463. I told people if they wanted to reach me, just dial God, and I would answer.
posted by Jerry on 12-26-2008 at 12:19 pm
1. I’m from a very small town and we all tease that no matter where you are in the country if you go to wal-mart you’ll see someone you know from Gonzales. I was in Panama City Florida two years ago in the wal-mart and saw not one, but two people I went to high school with (they weren’t with each other)
2. Well, the worst new year’s ever was two years ago. We went to a confire, I broke my heel off in some mud, and my friend and I never even ended up with a drink in our hand. So we decided to leave the party earlier and just head home for some sandwiches. Almost all the way home our friend called us and said his brother was sick at a party could we go pick him up. I, of course, said yes. The drive to the party was about an hour and when we finally got there the brother (who was 17) was not sick, but drunker than drunk. We are finally almost home and he pukes loads of blue chunks in my car.
4. Favorite Seinfeld. When Jerry finds out that Elaine was faking orgasms while they were together. He wants another shot at it but the whole show she says it would ruin the friendship. At the end she gives him another shot at it to SAVE the friendship and he can’t even get it up. haha. it was the best.
posted by Kaitlyn on 12-26-2008 at 12:32 pm
1) I ran into my cousin on the streets of Rome one summer. We hadn’t seen each other since we were kids and had never known each other very well. But as I walked down the street, I just knew it was her. She was sitting at a cafe, and I stood in front of her and said, “I’m your cousin!” It took her a moment to recognize me, but we had a very big laugh and took some pictures. She was on a high school summer trip going around Europe. I was spending my last semester of college studying abroad in Verona. Ten years later we now live a few hours apart and even spent Thanksgiving together! We still laugh about that chance encounter.
posted by Shasta on 12-26-2008 at 12:35 pm
1. I ran into my old bus driver at the Kennedy Center. I was about 16, and he was my bus driver when I was about 5. And he recognized me.
2. I went to a midnight movie when I was a teenager, and I fell asleep.
3. My number has zeros in it, so I can’t spell anything.
4. So many, but “Veronica Mars” is one of my all-time favorite shows, and my two favorite episodes are “An Echolls Family Christmas” and “A Trip to the Dentist.”
posted by Jenn on 12-26-2008 at 12:53 pm
My high school best friend’s phone number was 978-MATH. It was easy to remember, because I frequently needed help with Calculus.
posted by Jessi on 12-26-2008 at 12:59 pm
1) I was once waiting for my luggage at the airport in Paris (on my wasy to my wife’s visit my wife’s family, she was already there) and who should I see but her American born Uncle who was also on the same plane as me. I know, kinda boring when up against finding a cousin on a chance trip to Rome but that’s the best I could do.
2) no real memorable New Year’s Eve celebrations. No real bad ones either
4) hard to choose. There are many. I’d have to say most anything from The Office
posted by Bill on 12-26-2008 at 1:07 pm
Closest thing i have is that my current number ends in 666
posted by Amanda on 12-26-2008 at 1:16 pm
I went to a summer music festival/camp when I was a freshman in high school, and became friends with a girl who was from Arkansas. Later in the year, my family and I went to New York City for Christmas, and I ran into her at a flea market on the upper west side!
posted by weeble warble on 12-26-2008 at 1:22 pm
Not quite Rome, but did run into a cousin on Franklin St. during Halloween – he was stationed at Ft. Bragg and it had been a couple years since I last saw him.
Place I worked during HS, 869-HARD.
Not necessarily my favorite show, but the musical episode of Scrubs was fantastic.
posted by Mel on 12-26-2008 at 1:23 pm
I once met a fellow at a gas station in Francistown, Botswana and then ran in to the same guy about 3 months later in a bar in Bozeman, MT. –
posted by Marta on 12-26-2008 at 1:43 pm
My ex and I had a phone number that was “golf”, also “gold” and “hold”. My brother’s number is SEX-LOFT (that cracked him up).
I spent new year’s eve in New York City in 1988/89 – the one and only time I’ve ever seen the World Trade Center before 9/11.
One of my favortie tv episodes of King of Queens is the one where Carrie tries to learn pole dancing, and she’s terrible at it, so Doug has to show her how to do it.
posted by AnneF on 12-26-2008 at 2:20 pm
1) I am from Gaithersburg, MD… a few years back, my family went to Israel. One day, I was walking through the streets of Jerusalem, and I heard someone call my name… Of course, there was no way I thought the person was calling me – I was across the world from everyone I knew except for my family. But sure enough, someone came running up to me, and it turned out to be someone I had been in youth group with 10 years earlier… small world!
2) I am a performer, so most New Years Eves, I am working… but last year, I ended up going out with a friend of mine, and it was so much fun, even though it was the most pathetic New Years ever!!!
3)Not that I know of… I should probably check that out…
4) Don’t have a favorite anymore… I have been trying to cut down on my tv time…
posted by JaymeP on 12-26-2008 at 2:21 pm
3) I had a number once that was 606-HUGS.
posted by Mal on 12-26-2008 at 3:12 pm
4. the office: episode: health care. i work for a health care company and i have had spontaneous dentalhydroplosion, however my deductible was too high to treat it.
posted by tina on 12-26-2008 at 3:25 pm
When we lived in Austin TX we had 2 lines 512-###-CATS and 512-###-DOGS. I always try to get a number that spells something.
posted by VinceL on 12-26-2008 at 3:29 pm
My friend’s little sister’s first cell phone number spelled out BLOW-JOB.
For the first few weeks she wasn’t sure why lonely old men would call her at 3 a.m.
posted by Andy on 12-26-2008 at 3:33 pm
I am from a suburb of Chicago that has about 24,000 people. I was in the bathroom of a small pub in Ireland in 2006 and ran into someone that was from my hometown. Strange, right?
posted by kelly on 12-26-2008 at 3:42 pm
In May 2001 I flew to Zurich to meet up with a friend in Germany. There I was, 19 years old and trying to get my berings in the Zurich Airport, when I run into an older woman I worked with at the craft store back home! It turns out we were on the same plane. We said our hellos and went on our way.
While it doesn’t compare to the ‘cousin in Rome’ story, my cousin was in town on business a few years ago & we hadn’t seen each other in 15 years. His co-workers asked if he even knew what I looked like. He told them “No, but I’ll know it’s her when I see her”. It’s kinda crazy when you recognize people like that after so many years :)
posted by Christi on 12-26-2008 at 3:43 pm
1) I grew up in Miami. I bumped into a HS friend of mine (whom I hadn’t seen since HS) while walking down the staircase of a hostel in Brugges, Belgium.
While not as impressive, on our last night in Paris, my wife and I went to dinner at a small cafe. There was a large group of Americans whooping it up at the table next to us. We started speaking with them and told them it was our last day in France. They asked what airline we we’re flying back on. When we said “Continental,” two of the men at the table replied “We’re your pilots!!”
2) I used to work in the restaurant business. My job was cooking your dinner for your memorable NYE.
posted by Florida9 on 12-26-2008 at 4:10 pm
My brother’s phone number spelled FOXYLADY. Well, FOXYLAD was enough to get through, but that sounded a little too creepy to use as a mnemonic.
I like the Wizard of Oz episode of Scrubs. And the musical episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. (am I weird?)
posted by Scott on 12-26-2008 at 4:11 pm
1. About 2 weeks into Air Force Basic Training, I’m going through the line for lunch at the chow hall and one of the guys serving food was a friend from high school.
Flash forward a few months, I’m at my first permanent base in Virginia in line for lunch, and one of the guys serving was in my training flight in basic training.
Twice I’ve run into people I know at EPCOT.
posted by PartiallyDeflected on 12-26-2008 at 4:47 pm
1. My family and I were visiting Chicago, which is many hours away from our hometown, and we ran into a family friend’s brother, whom we had only met once. He was visiting from Nigeria, and apparently had a fantastic memory.
3. I inherited my sister’s old cell phone and her number spells out her name. For a few years, her friends would still accidentally drunk dial me at 3 am.
4. I am a bit of a TV junkie, so here goes. Once More With Feeling-Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Cooter-30 Rock, Victor. Echo. November-The Venture Bros. And many, many, more.
posted by Kieran on 12-26-2008 at 4:54 pm
I think it’s possible that the Blackberry-style phone keyboard will kill phone numbers that spell things. I can’t call any of those numbers any more unless I draw out the regular layout of letters on my phone (not a Blackberry) that has that kind of keyboard.
That being said, my roommate’s number ends in RACHO (which is her nickname for Rachel).
posted by Julia on 12-26-2008 at 5:17 pm
The last four digits of my uncle’s phone number spell ORGY.
posted by Mary on 12-26-2008 at 5:40 pm
4) The Man Behind the Curtin and The Shape of Things to Come – both ‘Benjamin Linus’-centric LOST episodes…
I especially love TSOTTC… Ben gets to act all ‘Indiana Jones-y Action Hero Bad A**!
posted by Amy on 12-26-2008 at 5:50 pm
my cell phone in college spelled ded-sexy!
posted by Manda on 12-26-2008 at 5:54 pm
My daughter and I were traveling in 1997 to Pusan, South Korea to visit my other daughter who was teaching ESL there, and when we got off the plane in Seoul to change to another flight to Pusan, as we came out onto the concourse, standing in the front row was her ex-brother-in-law (she’d been divorced for more than 10 years at that point). She hadn’t seen him since the divorce. It was beyond unexpected, and we were all very surprised but pleased to see him (his brother, my daughter’s ex, had died too young several years earlier of a rare cancer). A familiar face in such an exotic context is bizarre!
posted by Dolly on 12-26-2008 at 7:30 pm
1: I was wandering around one day during my study abroad in Italy and was taking in a few sites that I had wanted to see since High School. My h.s. History teacher had been awesome at instilling knowledge and I always remembered his lectures about Italy and the Medici family and Santa Croce, etc. After visiting just about everything I wanted to in the early part of the day, I headed for the Medici family chapel. As I was standing outside marvelling at the place, who should walk out of the chapel but my high school history teacher. Completely dumb struck, we both had a good laugh at the moment and the odds of it happening. We ended up chatting for the a while longer and he ended up giving me a repeat on the Medici chapel. My ears were a little more open the second time around.
2: NYE 1999 I invited a bunch of my friends over to my parents house to “bring in the millenium.” All night my brainiac friend kept complaining that it wasn’t going to be the new millenium until NYE 2000, as 2001 would be the start, not 2000. After an hour of listening to him complain about the actual year and computer issues and yada yada yada we’d all had enough and told him to shut up. As mid-night approached we all sat together and watched the ball drop on TV. Midnight hit and the power in the entire house went out. We were all slightly confused because, even though we could still see the neighbors power was still on, Mr. Millenium freaked out worse than anyone had ever seen. My dad eventually turned the power back on to the whole house, but it was fun to see the tables turned on Mr. Smarty Pants.
3: My Phone numbers in college was “SWORD” which was fantastic, as it was about the time that Will Ferrell did his Jeopardy bit on SNL, so everyone I knew would use their own favorite bit to remember it. Pen is mightier than the sword, S-words, etc. Pretty funny.
4: My favorite episode of my favorite shoe is the episode of Friends where Ross gets spray tanned 6 times (I think, might be 4) on the front side of his body because he doesn’t know “how to count” unless he uses the Mississippi method. Cracks me up. Ms. Hawaiian tropic!
posted by Caroline on 12-26-2008 at 9:10 pm
1. In a bar in Hong Kong I heard some other unmistakably southern accents. We struck up a conversation with those at the table. One of the guys was engaged to my grandmother’s best friend’s daughter. Not a direct connection, but still an odd bit of serendipity.
2. New Year’s Eve 2001 my husband and I went scuba diving in Puget Sound. At midnight, we went down to about 30 feet, shook up a bottle of champagne, drank from it between breaths and buried the bottle in the sand.
posted by ashleyrobin on 12-26-2008 at 9:23 pm
My best friend (a guy) has the number CUPCAKE. It also spells CURABLE.
posted by Lisa on 12-26-2008 at 9:37 pm
1. I’ve never run into anyone I know, but I’m always running into people who think they know me. I apparently look like every heavy-set, dark-haired, glasses-wearing, 25-35 year old woman. It’s a bit disturbing when people think I’m lying about being so-and-so’s daughter/wife/mother/aunt/cousin and get mad at me. (My favorite is from few years back when I was visiting NYC for the day, and passed a guy on the street handing out flyers. He looked surprised to see me and said “Hey, how you doing, got the day off for once, huh?”. I said, “yep” and kept going. Always wondered if that’s standard flyer-guy repartee, and if not who he thought I was.)
2. The only memorable New Year’s is from when I was 16. I was babysitting at my aunt & uncle’s apartment in a not quite reputable neighborhood. (They were pretty sure their neighbor was a prostitute) At around 1am, some drunk guys came pounding on the door thinking it was the neighbor’s. Scared the hell out of me. (the recaptcha is fitting: apartment held)
4. I’m fond of several episodes of “Due South”, probably “Gift of the Wheelman” is my fave (a nice O. Henry redux with dead fathers dropping by). More recently, I’m adoring every episode of “Pushing Daisies” since they’re an endangered species. (I’m in denial that they’re an extinct species)
posted by steph on 12-26-2008 at 9:50 pm
1. I wouldn’t say they were friends, but in college, a couple friends and I went to Mardi Gras in New Orleans from Peoria IL (Bradley U). We got caught in an ice storm in ARKANSAS and the highway closed (big accident blocked a bridge). So the hwy turns into a parking lot and the van next to us turned out to be frat guys from our school. We ran into them again the next morning at a McDonalds in Mississippi.
2. No, except we all agreed to play snow football on New Yrs Day while at our New Yrs party the previous night. The game was more memorable than the party.
3. I once had a phone number that transposed my Social Security number, it led to some confusion sometimes.
4. Once More With Feeling, Buffy The Vampire Slayer
posted by jonny on 12-26-2008 at 10:03 pm
1. i live in Michigan, and was at Cedar Point in Sandusky Oh (big roller coaster amusement park), in line with some friends for a roller coaster. the guy in front of me says he thinks he knows me, and i said i wasn’t sure who he was. Turns out he and I had fooled around at a new years party in Ann Arbor Michigan a few months previously.
2.other than fool around with some guy and then completely forget who he is? was at a fireworks display and a friend took my photo. without thinking about what i was wearing, i e-mailed the photo to my parents. i was wearing my Dad’s old army reserves jacket, that he didn’t know i had.
3. the last four digits of my friend’s cell phone number spell his first name.
4. Firefly, the episode where Malcolm accidentally gets married.
posted by redhead on 12-26-2008 at 10:22 pm
Some 25+ years ago, during a three-week college-sponsored trip to France, I went to tour Les Invalides. As I walked toward the entrance, I said, “Hi” to a high school friend who was passing me, going the other direction.
It took both of us several steps before we realized that: a) we hadn’t seen each other since high school; and b) we weren’t exactly in suburban Chicago.
posted by Kate in St. Louis on 12-26-2008 at 11:11 pm
1. 30 years ago I was dating a woman in Chile while I was studying there. Her older sister was in the process of divorcing a total jerk. Divorces in Chile cost a lot and took forever. Five years later I am back in the USA in a 7-11 very early in the morning and in walks this jerk. I ask him in spanish is he was the jerk and he can’t place me for anything. 2 months later I read in the paper that he was arrested for trying to sell a phony ruby mine to a famous singer.
2. I have spent a few New Years in hospitals from broken leg skiing over the break, elk steak blocked esophagus, and allergic reaction to cats.
3. After college my first apartment number ended in 3825 which spells out FUCK. A friend noticed that.
4. Seinfeld’s Master of Own Domain.
posted by gamerjohn on 12-27-2008 at 2:00 am
The summer before sixth grade I saw a kid I went to fifth grade with while standing in line at the ‘It’s a small world’ ride at Disney Land. How appropriate.
posted by Andrea on 12-27-2008 at 4:54 am
I spent a year in Tongliao, Inner Mongolia. While there, I ended up meeting up with someone who was friends with a girl I’d worked with at my last job in Canada. I also met up with a Newfie who had lived in Ottawa the same time I had, who knew the same people, and went to the same bars. This Newfie was there with two of his friends from home. I went to visit them in their hometown of St. Lawrence. I came back to Ontario, to the small town of Pembroke, and who do I met? A cousin of one of the newfie’s I’d met in Inner Mongolia, and whose extended family i had just met in St. Lawrence….
posted by amdela80 on 12-27-2008 at 9:42 am
1. Ran into someone my boyfriend knew on Bourbon St in New Orleans on New Years a year ago
2. Same, New Years NOLA was amazing..we went to watch Georgia vs Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl
3. My last two jobs have spelled out the name of the company (well, the current one spells out BOOK but we’re a publisher…so…)
4. The episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia where the gang has to give back and coach kids basketball. Charlie gets drunk and stuffs this kid’s shot when he’s refereeing…I almost peed laughing
posted by Brooke on 12-27-2008 at 10:12 am
When I was growing up, our phone number was WAT-FLAG. This was especially easy for us kids to remember because my dad’s initials spell out WAT.
posted by Sarah on 12-27-2008 at 11:45 am
While flying back home during Christmas break my first year in college I was in Dallas on a brief layover when I saw this guy walking towards me whom I recognized. We had graduated together and he had gone to school in California while I had gone to Mexico (long story. lol).
We hadn’t been seated next to each other but people were kind and we had the whole four hour flight back to BWI to catch up. So awesome.
posted by Liz on 12-27-2008 at 1:28 pm
#1–a few experiences:
~While in Bolsena, Italy I ran into a guy a few years older than me who I had a HUGE crush on in high school–hadn’t seen him in a couple years and if he didn’t say hi to me first, I wouldn’t have recognized him
~While waiting to pick up a friend from the Prague airport, there was a girl from my high school who was also waiting to pick up her friend from the same flight
~Kind of in the same cagtegory–I was studying in Prague and went on a weekend trip to Olomouc. We met a guy at a bar there and after chatting for a while, we figured out that he had been the last tenant in our flat in Prague that we were currently living in. Not just the same building–the actual apartment.
posted by Kelly on 12-27-2008 at 1:42 pm
1. Okay, I know Facebook doesn’t really count, but I’m in touch with my best friend from 35 years ago… when we were 8 and nine years old. Wierdly, our lives have turned out very similarly – points to nature and not nurture!
2. New Year’s sucks! Comedy club, bar, house party, stadium party, intimate dinner, they all suck. Probably the only memorable one was watching Poseidon Adventure (the old one) in a screening room and eating cheese… that was fun!
3. A friend in college had FAG-HAUS as a number… it was his gentle way of coming out to everyone.
4. Cape Feare episode of The Simpsons. On so many levels. And I love G&S.
posted by Marion on 12-27-2008 at 2:21 pm
I actually have nothing interesting for the first 3 questions.
I would like to say “My Lunch” in Season 5 of Scrubs makes me cry every time I watch it.
posted by Nathan on 12-27-2008 at 5:47 pm
When I was 15, I moved 70 miles away from my hometown. I ended up going hiking one day out in the middle of a 65,000 acre park (100 miles from my hometown). As I was making my way through the forest, I passed by a girl. She stopped, stared at me, and shouted my name… it was one of my closest friends from elementary school!
Another time, I moved about 60 miles from my hometown to a very small town (populated mainly by Mennonites & Amish), and my next door neighbor was a girl I went to Catholic school with.
posted by Lisa on 12-27-2008 at 5:48 pm
1. I wouldn’t say friend, but when I was 15 we moved 600 miles. A decade later a girl I went to school with hooked up with some guy and moved 10 miles away from me. Imagine the surprise when she needed her car worked on and was sent to a good mechanic in the next town and it turned out to by my father.
2. Ah, my younger days before the children. Now, admitting them in public is another thing;-)
3. I special requested this number, 36BITCH. It was funny as hell until my oldest went to kindergarten and his teacher asked what his phone number was.
4. I don’t have a favorite episode of any TV show, sorry.
posted by Lorelei on 12-27-2008 at 7:19 pm
3. The number to our dorm room freshman year was 774-KISS or 774-LIPS.
posted by Erica on 12-27-2008 at 7:33 pm
A couple years ago I had a work cell number that was very similar to an area escort service provider. My cell was 202 and the escort service was 301. Anyway, for a few days I answered the calls and kindly, and without judgement, referred the guys to the 301 number but a few very disturbed jerks called over and over again just because they found a female voice on the end to mess with, I assume anyway. Oh brother. So I turned it off and that monday the first thing I did when I arrived at work was turn in that nasty, filthy, slutty cell phone.
Favorite TV show – the flight of the conchords episode when Mel has the boys over for dinner and they bring dates.
Nothing great to mention for 1 and 2 except that New Years I worked for an escort service and I “ran into my cousin” -sick!! just kidding!!
posted by Erin on 12-27-2008 at 8:59 pm
My home number used to be 431-8294 (8294=TAXI), and it had previously belonged to a local cab company. Needless to say, I had to take the phone off the hook every New Year’s Eve…
posted by Tim on 12-27-2008 at 11:47 pm
1. We live in Georgia and my sister found one of her old camp campers from Texas while we were on a cruise to the Bahamas.
2. The coolest thing I ever did for New Years when I was in high school was babysit. As a 15 year old, on New Years you could pull in HUGE money ($20 an hour) from desperate parents.
3. My assigned phone number the first few weeks in college in Austin, TX was 867-5309. People would call and ask for Jenny and I’d tell them that I haven’t been called that since I was 6. Also, I had horrible roommates and ended up moving out of that dorm after two weeks.
4. My favorite episode of Growing Pains was the one where Brad Pitt plays an asshole rock star and breaks Ben’s heart.
posted by Jen on 12-28-2008 at 5:07 pm
My friend’s phone number is 55-DISCO. Awesome I know.
posted by AG on 12-28-2008 at 9:53 pm
My cell number is, and has been for ten years, 439-0439. Which spells “hey-0-hey”. It’s a funny way to tell folks to remember your number. Funnier when drinking is involved, for some reason . . .
posted by tgirl on 12-28-2008 at 11:38 pm
When I was working on a Marvel comic book, the artist’s phone number (after the area code) was FROGNUT. After my divorce, my phone number was Sex More; now that I’m married again, it’s Way Stif(f).
posted by VibroCount on 12-29-2008 at 3:42 am
1. While in tech school in the air force in Biloxi, Mississippi, I was in the base toy store, wearing a high school era softball shirt from an industrial league team I had played on. A guy walks up, taps me on the shoulder and says hi… we had graduated from high school together (Bay Area, California), he had worked at the team sponsor, and had married the girl I took to the junior prom. She (and their baby & her brother) were with him in town.
2. My first wife and I attended the closing of Winterland… Grateful Dead, Blues Brothers, New Riders.
3. When I was working on a Marvel comic book, the artist’s phone number (after the area code) was FROGNUT. After my divorce, my phone number was Sex More; now that I’m married again, it’s Way Stif(f).
4. When Captain Fortune had to chase all over San Francisco in his Isetta.
posted by VibroCount on 12-29-2008 at 3:52 am
Our home number used to spell P_R_A_Y_E_R_S, real easy to remember!
posted by Arthur on 12-29-2008 at 8:43 am
I used to work with a girl who worked at the phone company. Both my sister and I were about to chnage companies, so she was able to help us out. My phone number spells my name (238-4269)and the last four digits of my sisters number spell her name.
posted by Bethany on 12-29-2008 at 10:52 am
Both my landline and my cell have 634 in the last four digits because they spell “MEG”.
posted by Meghan on 12-29-2008 at 11:35 am
1. I ran into a friend of a friend in two different airports on two separate occasions. (O’Hare and Dulles)
2. I don’t remember my best new years
3. A friend of mine used to have MILKSAC as a phone number.
4. A Burden’s Burden- Strangers with Candy
posted by erin on 12-29-2008 at 11:38 am
I ran into a cousin I had not met before at a birthday happy hour of a friend. I am from Oregon and she Washington (the state) and we were in Washington (the district). She was dating one of my friends
posted by Fennis on 12-29-2008 at 12:26 pm
1) A buddy and I were at a gentleman’s club in Minneapolis, and I bought him a dance. A couple minutes in, we realized it was a gal who graduated high school with us.
2) My best New Years’ not appropriate to share on this website.
3) I had a friend in middle school whose phone number spelled out TUG-NUTS
4) I can’t think of a favorite episode, but one of my top picks for shows was Kids In The Hall. Girl Drink Drunk was one of the best sketches ever (look it up on youtube).
posted by matt on 12-29-2008 at 4:40 pm
3. Having worked for a small wireless phone company and being in charge of the number inventory (now assimilated by one of the big 4), I had some fun with phone numbers.
333-3333: I was going to take this for myself. We set it up as a test number and was amazed by the messages we got. Alot of babies/small children with their parents hollering in the background. Very entertaining.
666-6666: Satan. Nuff said.
I once set up a stripper with the phone number 555-3825 (I can’t remember the exact NPA). I won’t spell it out for you, but I was assuming she had a second job as well.
posted by Tom on 12-30-2008 at 3:36 pm
I lived in a rural town in South East Missouri on and off my whole life. The new pastor at our local church up the road moved in and had two sons, one was my age (at the time 14~15 years old)
i kind of stood out in the rural farmer small town country music listening area due to my extreme fondness of heavy metal and the such, well the one son my age also liked heavy metal so we became friends for two years when his family simply disappeared in the night, no kidding, they just moved away without notice… nobody knew where to…
a year later i moved back to my home town 420 miles away in Northern Illinois, the second biggest city in Illinois, so rural life was again a distant past, and on my first day of school i seen my old buddy from Missouri who had disappeared in the night over a year ago, was pretty cool… we became friends all over again…
posted by RodneyB on 12-31-2008 at 2:09 pm
My husband and his parents (from California) bumped into his aunt and uncle (from Hong Kong) at the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Neither of them knew the other would be there. That’s pretty amazing!
I’ve bumped into a teacher I had in elementary school when I lived in Kansas at a local eatery here in California, 20 years later. I’ve also bumped into some neighbors at the Grand Canyon.
posted by CK on 1-2-2009 at 4:29 pm
(1) Not me, but my Dad – He lives half the year on a small farm in southern Indiana (Springville), population maybe 700 or so, small enough that it didn’t even have an actual address until about 5 years ago (just Rural Route #2). One year on a business trip 15 or so years ago while touring a museum with co-workers, he ran into his mailman from Indiana, who was on vacation with his family in Yekaterinburg (formerly Sverdlovsk), Russia. Dad still lives there and this guy is still the mailman and they still get a laugh over it. Small world.
(2) Nope, New Year’s is always a big bust.
(3) Nope.
(4) The Simpsons episode where Mr. Burns wants to turn Santa’s Little Helper’s puppies into an outfit (”kill two for matching clogs!”.) The song was HILARIOUS and the puppies were fine in the end [of course].
posted by carey on 1-3-2009 at 4:28 pm
My number used to be 721-CRUD, but then I got a new one. I liked it because it was easy to remember.
posted by Janel on 1-4-2009 at 8:18 pm
After my husband and I got married, we lived in an apartment that was built behind a main house. We were friendly with the people that lived in the house and lived there almost two years before the dot.com bubble increased our rent to levels we couldn’t handle.
I had always loved Las Vegas so we decided to move there. About a year after we moved, my sister came to visit so we went to the airport to pick her up. At the Las Vegas airport, you generally have to take little subway-type trains to get to the actual concourse. While on one of these trains, who happened to be there but the girl that lived in the house we lived behind.
If that wasn’t enough, a little while later, while waiting at baggage claim, I saw some guy that looked very familiar but I couldn’t place him. After like 10 mins of racking my brain and coming up with nothing, and noticing that he, and his friends, were looking my way also, I went over there. Turns out I went to high school with them and they were in Las Vegas for a different friend’s bachelor party.
posted by Sarah on 1-16-2009 at 11:59 am
I forgot this one, even though it wasn’t an old friend but I definitely expect to see this person in this place at this time!
The day I graduated high school, I had my first date ever. After the ceremony and lunch with family, I met up with my date and we went to his house to hang out. He said he something planned for a little later but I didn’t know what it was until we were on our way there.
Turns out, he had a friend that worked at the theater of a local university and he got us free tickets, if we worked the concession stand during the break (really, this was our first date). So we go and he’s talking with his friend while I’m looking at the bulletin board of flyers and stuff. I hear a cough behind me and turn out…
It was my dad! Unbeknownst to me, he already had tickets for the show long before I had even set up this “date”, ha.
posted by Sarah on 1-16-2009 at 12:04 pm
1. Like another commenter, I’ve often been mistaken for other people. The most random was in a cab on the way to the airport (in Pittsburgh). I traveled a bit with my job, so I had a regular cabbie who picked up another regular on the way to the airport.
The other customer was a 50-ish pilot, and judging from his accent he was from Africa. He didn’t say a word through the entire 40 minute ride until he got out of the cab. He then said: “I am certain I have met you before”, then just walked away!
2. I have a couple of memorable ones – one that was very sad in that I was the only single girl at a party full of couples (mostly engineers). So incredibly boring…
The other was incredible! It was 1999/2000, and I went to an awesome houseparty on the Upper East Side of NYC with a friend who knew the owners.
3. None that I can remember.
4. Scrubs – love the one in season 3 where Dr. Cox’s best friend dies. So very well done. Also the Wizard of Oz one in Seaon 5.
And, all of the Firefly episodes.
Finally, the musical Buffy episode.
posted by Dawn on 1-25-2009 at 1:26 am