Calling Up the Past

     One of the saddest bits of joke archaeology is running across fossils: jokes which were once alive and kicking, quivering with excitement at the laugh that would be forthcoming when the audience heard it for the eighty-third time.  Sometimes they do not realize they have been told for the last time, and wait inContinue reading “Calling Up the Past”

Number Please

     A man named Charles Williams, Jr. had the honor of having the first phone number in the United States.  (It was 1, of course.  Mr. Williams produced telephone equipment for Alexander Graham Bell, so he played guinea pig.  (He also, by the way, had the second phone number—2–for his shop.)  You can read theContinue reading “Number Please”