WineLovers Discussion Group

Jenise wrote:And while I'm at it, may I lodge my biggest praise for the old style phones in that you could take one off the hook in aid of a nap? None of our current phones allow me this--even if you disable one, another rings anyway.

Yes. A definite loss. What I have done is simply train myself not to run to the phone whenever it rings. It's hard at first, but it gets easier.

For whatever reason we still have a wall phone in the kitchen near the door. I just had to get up and look to be sure -- it does have a coiled cord. There are 3 "slave" wireless phones that do not. My wife tends to stand in the kitchen doorway to talk whether she is on her cellphone, a wireless "slave" phone, or the main kitchen phone. Sometimes I point out how silly that is.

I mostly take cell phone calls wherever I am at the time.

I mostly NEVER answer our house phone because it is spam, jerks, Jamaicans trying to convince us we have won a prize or some non-profit begging for money. Feh!!!

Jeff Grossman/NYC wrote:

Jenise wrote:And while I'm at it, may I lodge my biggest praise for the old style phones in that you could take one off the hook in aid of a nap? None of our current phones allow me this--even if you disable one, another rings anyway.

Yes. A definite loss. What I have done is simply train myself not to run to the phone whenever it rings. It's hard at first, but it gets easier.

We've done the same. But the problem remains that the land line might not ring for days, but as soon as Jenise needs a nap? R-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-N-G! No peace.

Jenise wrote:We've done the same. But the problem remains that the land line might not ring for days, but as soon as Jenise needs a nap? R-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-N-G! No peace.

So true. We have three phones on the land line: an antique "ashtray" phone from the 1930s, and two modern phones. The old phone goes r-r-r-r-i-n-g but the new ones play Fur Elise.

I prefer the ring.

Hey, forget phones: I found rye Triscuits yesterday. YUMMERS!

Jenise wrote:Hey, forget phones: I found rye Triscuits yesterday. YUMMERS!

Whew! I was just starting to look for a box to mail you some.

Jeff Grossman/NYC wrote:

Jenise wrote:Hey, forget phones: I found rye Triscuits yesterday. YUMMERS!

Whew! I was just starting to look for a box to mail you some.

If you can't find any, maybe I need to mail YOU an emergency supply?

Jeff Grossman/NYC wrote:-- The old wall phones did not run without electricity! The phone company provided the electricity, not the power company. (That's why an old phone has 4 wires: 2 for the conversation and 2 for the juice to make the bell ring.)

Though the era of slaved telephones is long gone, that trick lives on... sorta. I learned a few years ago that, to effectively power cycle my cable modem, I had to not only disconnect the power cable but also the coax cable containing the feed from the cable company: enough residual power bled in from the coax to keep capacitors from discharging in the cable modem. Live and learn.

Mark Lipton

Jenise wrote:

Jeff Grossman/NYC wrote:

Jenise wrote:Hey, forget phones: I found rye Triscuits yesterday. YUMMERS!

Whew! I was just starting to look for a box to mail you some.

If you can't find any, maybe I need to mail YOU an emergency supply?

No, No, don't rely on Jenise to mail you something...she still has not mailed my book!

Karen, I never got a PM with your address.

And speaking of that, I ended up with an extra copy of one of the other books which I was going to offer you as well. Pacific Rim and Southeast Asian, I believe it is.

Jenise wrote:Karen, I never got a PM with your address.

And speaking of that, I ended up with an extra copy of one of the other books which I was going to offer you as well. Pacific Rim and Southeast Asian, I believe it is.

Humm. I have sent a PM three times. Maybe I am doing it wrong.. Just sent one again.

Karen/NoCA wrote:

Jenise wrote:Karen, I never got a PM with your address.

And speaking of that, I ended up with an extra copy of one of the other books which I was going to offer you as well. Pacific Rim and Southeast Asian, I believe it is.

Humm. I have sent a PM three times. Maybe I am doing it wrong.. Just sent one again.

Three? Wow, got none of those, and my PM file is full of stuff that's been there for years because I never delete anything. IIRC, the PM thing has a 'sent' feature which leaves a record of what you've sent. Anyway, I'll look now (though when I came in, I didn't get a notice of a new PM pending.)

Hmmm...nope, no new messages.

Jenise, I sent via the email link this morning. A copy is also being sent to me, Let me know if you get your copy.

I have an original (to the house) black Bakelite wall phone right outside our kitchen - it looks like this:



I don't take calls when I am cooking, or if I do I don't stay on the line longer than to say that I'm busy and will call back or that they should call again later.

I've never understood people that immediately drop everything (including unfinished conversations with people sitting right in front of them) to obey the Great God Telephone. Who is the master and who the servant? It seems that many people get that mixed up.

Bill, most importantly, that phone isn't merely just outside the kitchen, it's in the entry foyer from which every room on the first floor fans out, and it's at the base of the stairs. It harkens to a time when a household would only have a single phone so a central location was key, and that a special inset alcove in the wall was provided for it speaks, I'm sure, to the upscale nature of the home and neighborhood.

Our place had another oddball - a duplex electrical outlet but with one receptacle set up for aerial and ground - anyone seen these before? Pic isn't mine, I found this one on the web.

My grandmother's house had a phone alcove. At the bottom of the stairs for the second floor -- bedroom to the left, living room to the right. And that is where the only phone was, but it had its own table.

My tenants have a piece of furniture which incorporates a chair with a table attached on one side. A telephone table. Pretty cool. Very obsolete of course.

Frank Deis wrote:My tenants have a piece of furniture which incorporates a chair with a table attached on one side. A telephone table. Pretty cool. Very obsolete of course.

My grandmother had one of those! She kept a pencil on the table, not for taking notes, but to dial with: the phone rotor was steel and hurt her finger. I remember there was a dark groove about a half-inch down from the top of the pencil.

Grandma's old house had a telephone on a cute table in the dining room. It overlooked a fish pond, vegetable garden and currant plants. She kept the telephone book on the bottom part of the table, and a note pad and pencil beside the phone. The cord was just long enough that I could pull a chair away from the dinning table and sit down. I was not allowed lenghthy calls to chat with my peers, because the adults had more important calls coming in.