artemisdart

269) Have you ever called fake 1-800 numbers just to see if they really existed?

Last Thanksgiving, some friends and I were discussing the difficulties of preparing the "perfect" Thanksgiving dinner. You know, there's a 1-800 number that people can call to get free advice about preparing their Thanksgiving turkeys.

I wondered if there was a similar service for yams. It occurred to me that "1-800-YAM-HELP" would fit the format of 1-800 numbers perfectly.

So I called it. My friends were standing around laughing -- they couldn't believe I was really calling "1-800-YAM-HELP."

Turns out that the numbers lead to a 1-800 number for field journalists of some newspaper to call when they need help of some sort. I think it was the New York Times. Since it was Thanksgiving, of course no one answered.

I actually left a message on their voice mail, saying that I had wondered whether there existed a "Yam Help" service... and asking them whether they knew that their phone number spelled out "1-800-YAM-HELP." Strangely, they never called me back.

My friends still tease me about this to this day.