306. Areas Codes

Let us say that if you wanted to place a call to Papa Hemingway whilst he was lounging about his favorite city in the United States, you would use the Area Code 305 to place the call. That was the significance of the previous entry's number to the previous entry's subject matter - the Area Code. Florida was one of the first states that put the North American Numbering Plan, designed by AT&T, into use. The original area code for Florida was 305. Florida now has seventeen. 305, then as now, serves Key West as well as other parts of far-southern Florida.

Area Codes were created in the late 1940s and first came into use in 1951. Kentucky's original area code was 502. We presently have four codes (270, 502, 606, and 859) and we are scheduled to get another one (364) in the far western part of the state next year. The original list of codes for all of the United States, Canada, and Mexico had a zero, and then later a 1, as the center digit. Codes for higher populated areas had all low numbers. This was in the days of rotary telephones. If you are under 40, you may not have any idea what a rotary telephone is. Suffice it to say that the two largest cities in the land have area codes of 212 and 213, which requires the least number of rotary clicks to make a long distance call. None of the original codes began or ended in a 1 which is still the case. For that matter, none of them begin or end in 11 either.


Of course now that the number on a phone is representative of an electronic signal, and not a rotary click, any number can pretty well be assigned anywhere. It seems to be with the advancement of cellular technology that, in all honesty, there should be no such thing as a "long-distance call." But then, those are money makers for telephone systems and I doubt they will go away.

One final note on Area Codes which bothers me. Calls can be made between Canada and the United States using the 1+the Area Code format. But, since 1991, there has been a wall erected between the United States and Mexico. To call "south of the border," one must use the International Calling Codes of 01+the Country Code of 52, as if calling from El Paso, Texas, USA to Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico is a lot different than calling from Detroit, Michigan, USA to Windsor, Ontario, Canada. You have to wonder why one is treated differently from the other.

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Bridget: Death in the Afternoon, but I've never had one. In my drinking days, I drank beer, except on payday weekends when Old Forester Bourbon was my drink of choice. In The Sun Also Rises, there is lots of alcohol consumed, mostly beer, but also liqueurs made with Absinthe, which is made with Anise. Death in the Afternoon is made with Absinthe.

Ben: Is that all you ever think about? Wait, I know the answer to that.