The Area Code Criminal

When we were in the Holiday Inn in St. Louis, I wanted to call Queens but I couldn't remember if the area code was 718 or 708.

The operator said, "You live there and you can't remember your area code?"

I said, "Is it a crime if you can't remember your number?"

She asked me where I wanted to call and I said, "Queens". She couldn't understand my pronunciation, so I said, "It is the feminine of king."

So I was teaching her vocabulary and she was teaching me pronunciation.

—27 June 1987