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Ken, m'dear... are you sure in your youth (lo, these many long years ago) <grinning and ducking> you didn't live in DISNEYLAND? I'm SURE that would be the only place in the world that had such a wonderful phone service! <giggle> Barb Mallut [log in to unmask] Ken Becker said: BARB, I can't BELIEVE it! Did you see the front page of the newspaper today? "LADY IN L.A BANKRUPTS PACIFIC BELL!" (We WISH!!!!) But seriously, we must not let ANY monster bring us to our knees a few pennies at a time. When I was a kid a million years ago, there was just "The Phone Company" Every ten or twenty years they would bring out a new black dial phone model, IF your 40 year old one needed to be replaced! If you wanted a line or needed service (rarely!) or had a question about the simple bill, you called one company, and spoke to one person, (She was the only one in the whole country, or at least they all sounded the same!) and got an answer. If your house was on fire, you had a heart attack, or needed an answer to a question for school you dialed O for Operator. If someone you called, was on the phone, you heard a busy signal. You never heard a fax machine or modem when you dialed a phone. You never heard little beeps every few seconds from call waiting. If you needed to break into a call in a real emergency a real operator would help you. You rarely had to dial more than 7 digits, maybe 10, to get anyone in the world on the phone. The computers at the phone company were never down, because they did not exist, they were replaced by PEOPLE! You never had to press one for this, two for that, or 3 for something else, and you rarely got hung up on, while waiting for help. Those WERE the GOOD OLD DAYS! If that makes me sound old, I don't CARE! (But you already knew all that, right?) So good for you BARB! You made the first step to bring the phone companies back to the people! Ken B