TheBanyanTree: Luck of the Irish

[Rob McMonigal]

I apologize for two extreme American-biased comments that didn't get a full
explanation!

American phone numbers have an area code that's 3 numbers, signaling where
you live.  For instance, my old area code was 412.  Then there is a 3 number
exchange,saying where in that area code you live.  Finally, there are 4 more
numbers that are just plain random, though the easy-to-remember ones tend to
be for businesses.

Back in the 80s, a rock band sang a song about a phone number.  They skipped
the area code--common "hollywood" practice, so as to not cause a person to
have a lot of prank calls--and sang about 867-5309.

Someone who really didn't care about my school at all apparently thought it
would be amusing to create the Admissions equivilent of a prank call by
using that as their number, and I fell for it!

NIS is notational shorthand in my line of work for "Not in service", i.e.
either  a fake number or a number that's been disconnected since it was
given.

I apologize for not explaining along the way, Peter!

-Rob