hexakosi...oh, forget it

[Mark Mandel]

On Jan 10, 2008 5:46 PM, James Harbeck <jharbeck at sympatico.ca> wrote:

> Huh. 666 was a common prefix in Somerville, Mass., when I was at
> Tufts. I suspect it still is. Some people I spoke to there didn't
> even make the association with the number of the beast (common error:
> people say it's the number of the Devil, or of the Antichrist, but
> actually it's the beast -- in fact, the second of two beasts
> mentioned by the book; they work in concert).
>
 <http://www.americandialect.org/>
Where can I get tickets?

When I lived in Framingham, Mass., our number was 877-6666. Our kosher
butcher mentioned that at least one of his other customers also had -6666;
my wife suspects that somebody at the phone company sighed, "That looks like
a Jewish name. Maybe THEY won't come screaming at us about the number of the
beast!"

My answering machine message then was: "You have reached 617 877-6666. To
leave a message for the Mandels, wait for the beep. If you're trying to
reach someone else, you have the Wrong Number of the Beast."

Mark A. Mandel

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org