Verizon man cometh! - Party: Chili, shrimp cocktail, plus food from guests - Ron Rosenbaum Blue Box article - and my former boss Herbert G Tigner

I found this handy stainless-steel table at curbside on the bottom of my street. The guy who lives there, w/his family and two chihuahuas, said the table had gone to college w/his daughter and she's now married w/ kids.

Whenever I leave home I put what I need on the table top. And forget it anyway.

When 17-month-old Grace came over this morning, we found she had crawled onto the bottom shelf and didn't know to get out!

I couldn't believe it, but Nicole assured me, No, she can't figure it out. Finally, she did, and then, according to Nicole, she did her "fake fall" below.

Grace is so fast you can't blink your eyes or she'll get into mischief.

I was all prepared for my party today. Here's my partial guest list:

T.J. Although his family hails from India, he's lived all over the country and has what sounds like a broad midwestern accent. His wife couldn't come cuz she's recovering from a cold.

Margaret, also from India, demonstrated her iPhone to us Luddites. "Look at the way she swipes her finger over the screen," I yelled in amazement. Margaret enjoyed my vegetarian chili using dried kidney beans and navy beans.

She brot healthy snax: celery and carrot sticks, both low in carbs.

Ann Gaugler is part of the Red Cross Disaster Relief team. She's been around the world including to Katrina in New Orleans, which she described at the party. She particularly remembers one old couple whose house stunk from mildew and were awaiting the insurance adjusters: the people who hold the reins of power in this country and make a huge profit from denying people what is rightfully theirs.

I said, Why doesn't the US military go down there and clean the place up? Of course, that makes too much sense, rules and regs prohibiting it, but it would certainly make sense. Hold on, I'll send Obama an email.

Just did it using this website.

Scott came over after all six of us were gathered today. After he came, we had a lively political discussion. When talking about politicians his fave expression is "he's a fraud." Oh, not you, Mr. Obama, certainly not you. Especially b/c you're gonna send the troops who were stationed in Iraq down to Louisiana to fix the ravages of the hurricane.

Linda came late, bearing gifts of red apples and string cheese. I set em up on a living room chair - ever the great hostess! - w/a scissors to cut into the cheese and a k-nife for apple slices.

I only had one apple slice since it's high in carbs and really does a no. on my blood sugar.

I kept the storm door open during the party cuz I like a lot of light.

"Here comes your Verizon man," said Scott who could see outside.

I went out to greet Ed. He's working on Sunday b/c there's so much work to do on account of the high winds we had last week. He lives in Southampton but keeps his Verizon truck with the other herd behind Carr & Duff on Byberry Road.

I told him both my phones went out. He went out back to check and then returned with the diagnosis.

The problem was caused by a family of squirrels who had made a nest in the thick black plastic cable.

Ed tapped the cable w/a long pole before he clumb up and The Verizon Squirrel Family quickly evacuated the nest. They had chewed up the phone wires real bad, said Ed. Yum! Nothing so delicious as vibrating phone wires. Feels good on my teeth. I get to sharpen them that way. And my claws too.

Ed speaks the language of the squirrels.

He'll be out tomorrow and I don't even have to be home.

Tomro is Martin Luther King Day. No mail. They played great songs on the rad today in honor of MLK including Sam Cook's posthumous hit "A Change is Gonna Come . He died at age 33 in a motel shooting in CA that is still disputed today.

All this broken phone talk reminded me of one of the best articles I've ever read: Ron Rosenbaum's "Secrets of the Little Blue Box" in a 1971 Esquire magazine.

It's the story of some clever teenagers - many of them blind - who outfoxed Ma Bell and figgered out how to make long distance calls for free.

There are 71 comments so far. I just HAD to comment. Remember, process your emotions.

Read the article when I was married and lived in Houston. Worked as secretary to Herbert G Tigner, a very nice racist who called his elderly janitor "boy." Just looked him up at the LDS find-your-ancestor site and found that he died in 1984 at the age of 79. He went quietly crazy after he closed some of his businesses down. Charged super-high interest for people who couldn't get insurance anywhere else. His wife's son had a nervous breakdown and thought he was Jesus.

It shook me, said Mr Tigner. I used to fill his sweet-smelling fountain pen. This people were relics from the days of slavery. When he'd make a mistake, he'd throw the paper on the floor, so Boy would pick it up.

I used to sneak in there and pick em up myself b/c the janitor was old and decrepit.

There was always a lovely functional drunk named Rosemary. I began writing a story about her that went "Rosemary sits near whirring fan."

She was always hot and red.

My best friend was Kathy Smith. Oh, the stories I could tell about her. She was the receptionist and only drank when she got home. She'd get hammered sitting out by the pool. Her kids hated her. I dunno what her husband Ken thought of her.

She was a truly lovely woman, cute and very hospitable. But boy could she ever drink.