When I worked at Penney's, we did not have rolled dimes. When we started we were trained that in times of emergency, we were to call the operator (of Penney's) and say we needed dimes. The only time I did this, the conversation went something like this:

ME: Hello, I need a roll of dimes.

OPERATOR: We don't have dimes here, didn't you know?

ME: Yes but I REALLY need a roll of dimes!

OPERATOR: I am sorry, but you can just use nickels!

ME: $#@#$!!!!

When I was a cab driver, we had two codes to call in and report trouble from a passenger (if we could). They were fake cab numbers that you used to identify yourself. One was if you thought there might be trouble, the other was if there was definitely trouble.

I was running a series of night rides (cheap, shared taxi service for late night, that took up to 45 minutes to arrive for pickup) and picked up two young women as part of a long ride heading from west to east. When I took them to their destination, only one got out. I asked the other one why she wasn't getting out and she said she was going way west side, the other direction.

She was actually supposed to get in a different cab. And I confirmed the destination with them, but this woman assumed she would just go on to her own destination.

When I explained this to her, it turned into a huge argument with her insisting I take her to her destination. When I told her that her choices were to call for another ride at the end of the line (with another 45 minute possible), or get out here, she flipped out, hinted she had a gun in her purse, and told me *I* would be taking her home whether I liked it or not.

Anyway, I stopped arguing and started driving again, and after a minute, called in on the "I have serious trouble" code.

The dispatcher asked me to explain what the problem was.

I told him I had a problem, but couldn't explain it. He said he wasn't going to take any emergency steps unless I explained what the problem was.

Understand that this is a code that might mean "I have a crazy person with a gun in my cab."

Everything turned out okay. Cops met us at the destination, and had guns drawn as passengers exited the vehicle. I was a little startling and scary for all involved. The young woman was just a punk kid with no gun and a big mouth.

However, I almost decked the dispatcher the next time I saw him.

Note to self: make sure if you have emergency codes, all involved know what they are.

I know there are publishers who supply Writer's Digest and the other listing services with a fake editor name. That's why, when a duplicitous would-be author writes in, "Dear [Jane], Here is the MS you asked for when I showed you my partial at the [Whatchamacallit] conference..." they know to send a "no thanks" response without any first reading.

Note to self: make sure if you have emergency codes, all involved know what they are.

SERIOUSLY.

Mr. Jane knows that if I call him any shmoopy name that's not sweetheart, there's trouble.

There were always attempts at my libraries to set things up - but they kept trying to use hospital codes- which sounded so fake. and the only reason you'd use a code is that you were trying to keep the crazy person from knowing you were calling for help. So we never had them.

David, bookseller #2 thought cover was "hilarious." She thinks it works for that album. Also recognized your name.

At the bookstore, where I work on Saturdays, we are always on the IM. So if a crzy person or somebody shifty is worrying me I can just explain on the IM what is happening to one of the owners and the person doesn't know any better....I still think we should come up with some emergency codes! Like, calling down to the office "Do we have any copies of Crazy Person in the Stacks! in stock?"

Remember that "Left Behind" videogame, where your object is to kill or convert heathens? Remember that the game didn't do so well in the marketplace?

Following massive losses, Left Behind Games has embarked on an executive purge:

Officials from controversial Christian game developer Left Behind Games (Left Behind: Eternal Forces) have announced that senior management at the company have accepted the resignation of senior vice president Jeffrey S. Frichner, with CEO Troy Lyndon also demanding the resignation of the company's other three board members.

The new appointments follow months of controversy over the game, both at Talk to Action and elsewhere. Critics have charged that Eternal Forces is violent, that it promotes a paranoid and hateful worldview, and that even on a technical level the game is a failure: unentertaining and allegedly liable to install spyware.

These attacks have alarmed the Left Behind novels' authors, who have already been so disappointed by the books' movie spin-offs that they had their names removed from Peter Lalonde's flock of low-budget turkeys. In a bid to improve sales of the game among Christians, Jerry Jenkins reassured potential Christian purchasers that the game is "not more violent than the Old Testament"....

"not more violent than the Old Testament" isn't saying much....

[link]

We have codes here. As noted, I'm disappointed that the intended reaction to "person with weapon" is flee. But the reaction to "person causing trouble" is to flock to them. I can see how I could totally get confused. My memory's not that good.

Oh--about the 90 apostrophe s thing--what is the rational for it? It's not replacing any letters, nor indicating a possessive--what else is the apostrophe for, beyond Go'a'uld?

In the column I read in the NYTimes and now can't find, it was about clarifying all-caps headlines, I think. 90S was somehow deemed less clear at a glance than 90'S.