Time of day calling it quits at AT&T
Passed on to me by my brother: Time of day calling it quits at AT&T - Los Angeles Times
The service traditionally provided by telephone companies, the free reading of time-of-day, which figures humorously into a Douglas Adams novel, is ending in California.
I remember calling 853-XXXX for the time at many times. Back when we referred to a phone service.
Another pop culture reference was found in the 1993 Wolfgang Petersen film In the Line of Fire (if you haven’t seen it, add it to your queue.) While in Southern California, a driver tells Frank Horrigan (Clint Eastwood) that he remembers a phone number as being U-K-E-L-E-L-E. Call that number in Southern California, and you used to get the time of day — a safe use of a number in a film.
Years ago I asked the author of 555-LIST (”Mind-numbingly comprehensive”, according to Entertainment Weekly, and frequently the object of much scorn) that he should add this as an honorable mention. I emailed him more recently and asked if he was planning on doing anything with the site (there have been no updates since 2002.) I think I’d like to take over the job from him.
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