octothorpe

[Steve K.]

On Thu, 29 Jun 2000, Victoria Neufeldt wrote:

> I've noticed that "number sign" is what you hear in voicemail instructions
> ("press . . . followed by the number sign")  in Canada -- but I don't know
> if that is true across the country.  Which makes more sense to me too than
> "pound sign", since it is much more commonly used as a number sign.  In
> fact, its use as a sign for pound (meaning weight, not pound Sterling) must
> be pretty well obsolete -- at least I can't recall seeing it, except in a
> historical context.

I've seen it in one place only -- on boxes of nails. Nails can be
classified by their weight (per 100, I believe), so you'll see 12 # nails
(or what have you) on the box, in addition to their length. I thought that
was pretty cool the first time I saw that. Check it out the next time
you're in a hardware store; I haven't bought nails in quite a while.


--- Steve K.