Significant numbers

[neil]

This side of the pond I'm wall aware that nine-eleven was a tragic date for
the US.

I'm also aware, through cop shows and detective fiction, that your
equivalent to our 999 when summoning help is nine-one-one.

So I was surprised to read the following:

"The government boys play for blood since nine-one-one."
--Loren D. Estleman, 'Nicotine Kiss', A Forge Book/Tom Doherty Associates,
NY, 2006, 20

"But there's a lot of bad feeling in this country towards Arabs in general
since nine-one-one..."
--Ibid, 208

Is this an isolated alternative vocalisation?


By the by, I may know 911 -- but not 900. Can anyone enlighten me?

'Lieutenant Mary Ann Thaler doesn't sound half as sexy as she looks, and the
way she sounds turns 911 into 900.'
--Ibid, 27

--Neil Crawford

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