Query: "I've got your number."

[Joel S. Berson]

At 3/16/2010 07:28 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>...
>
>I always assumed, without any privileged knowledge, that it referred
>to a phone number:  I've got your number, I know where to reach/get
>to you, you can't escape...   Maybe evoking those old movies like
>"Dial M for Murder", in which the bad guy has the good guy/gal's
>(phone) number and can call it at will to raise the latter's fear
>quotient and the audience's tension.  But that's just a guess.

A bad guess about "Dial M for Murder", however.  There's only one
phone call, by the husband to the wife he has blackmailed someone
into murdering.  See Wikipedia for the (complex) plot.

Joel

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