Mailbag

This information came in over the transom last night. It's a possible explanation of why you might be gettng those phone calls.....with apparently no one at the other end.

This is a telemarketing technique where a machine makes phone calls and records the time of day when a person answers the phone.

 This technique is used to determine the best time of day for a 'real' sales person to call back and get someone at home.

 What you can do after answering, if you notice there is no one there, is to immediately start hitting your # button on the phone, 6 or 7 times as quickly as possible mimicking the sound of a fax machine. This confuses the machine that dialed the call, and it kicks your number out of their system. Gosh, what a shame not to have your name in their system any longer!!! 

Interesting.

Incidentally, "...in over the transom," is a term that used to be used a lot in journalism (Remember journalism?  It used to be in all the newspapers. I miss it.)

Do you remember transoms?  They were windows located over many old fashion doors.

I'm sure you remember those windows that used to be in all our classrooms that in warm weather the teacher would open from the top with a pole of some kind with a hook on the end? 

Does anyone know what the name of that pole was?

Surely it had a name.

-Ed





 GOOD GRIEF

...and speaking of newspapers (which are still good for wrapping up dead fish)  have you seen this picture of Pawleys Island?

Pawleys Island

 PAWLEYS ISLAND, SC (WLTX) --There is a mystery along the South Carolina coast.

Thousands of dead fish washed up on the beach at the south end of  Pawleys Island Tuesday afternoon.  

The fish are menhaden, and the SC Department of Natural Resources have been notified of the incident.  

Menhaden fish are a small, oily fish that are used for fish oil and its oil is also an ingredient in lipstick and they are also used for livestock feed.