#phone number

[dropoutdottv]

🤫We're up to something

📞We need phone numbers

🤐We can't tell you any more than that (yet)

☎️➡️ Submit yours here

[fuzzyghost]

[donotlookbackanymore]

Thinking about that night in Rome when Bang Chan asked for my phone number 😏

You're my Roman Empire

[nihongo-ni-hon-yaku]

What’s 1-900-MIXALOT in Japanese? (Goroawase)

I’ve just randomly thought up a goated localization for one line in Baby Got Back

Dial 1-900-MIXALOT

0530-393-610に電話して

In the Anglosphere, the most common way to make phone numbers memorable is to spell out words using the T9 keypad letters as a mnemonic. That is, “A”, “B”, and “C” stand for “2”, and “W”, “X”, and “Y” stand for “9”. “Q” and “Z” tend to be avoided, because some keypads have them moved to “1” or “0”, while most of them tolerate having four letters on “7: PQRS” and “9: WXYZ”. If you were to dial “1-900-MIXALOT”, you would end up calling 1-900-649-2568.

(Don’t actually call that number. I think Sir Mix-a-Lot has better things to do than to park a 1-900 number for one hit song. Plus, you have to pay to call a 1-900 number.)

The Japanese equivalent is called goroawase (語呂合わせ), and is based on the many Japanese words for these numbers: on-yomi (Chinese-derived readings), kun-yomi (native Japanese readings), and English loanwords. For example, in goroawase, the digit “1” could be read “ichi”, “it-”, “i”, “hito”, “hi”, and “wan”, or even grouped as “10” and read as “juu”, “ju”, “to”, or “ten”. This is also how students in Japan memorize historical dates (e.g. the year 794 for the founding of Heian-Kyō, the capital in Kyoto, and the year 1192 for [one date for] the founding of the Kamakura Shogunate) or mathematical constants (e.g. √2 = 1.41421356..., √3 = 1.7320508...).

The same digit need not have the same reading in the same goroawase. In this example,

“3”: mi (shortened kun-yomi “mitsu”)

“9”: ku (on-yomi)

“3”: sa (shortened on-yomi “san”)

“6”: rot- (shortened kun-yomi “roku”)

“10”: to (shortened kun-yomi “tou”)

So the number “393-610” can be read out as mikusarotto (ミクサロット), which is the Japanese transcription of “Mix-a-Lot”. If Sir Mix-a-Lot were Japanese and wanted to buy a Japanese phone number, he would probably choose 393-610.

“0120” is a toll-free prefix and the Japanese equivalent of “1-800”, called “Free Dial” (フリーダイアル). The emoji “➿” is the logo for Free Dial. And I didn’t know this before this post, but “0530” is a premium-rate prefix and the Japanese equivalent of “1-900”, called “Navi Dial” (ナビダイヤル).

[your-dewey-decimal-number-is]

Some Times News

After much deliberation, I've decided to set up a customer service hotline for my zine:

305-340-9446

Call or text if you have any comments, suggestions, submissions, or questions. Want to know when I receive your subscription/send out your copy of the next issue? Want to amend your name or address in the mailing list? You can tell me which articles you liked the most and which ones you hated with a burning passion. You can suggest books or movies for me to review, or submit Dewey Decimal Classification requests for any non-fiction topic you can think of. I'd love to hear from the community! We've got readers in 22 states, and overseas!

You can also reach me at [email protected] or via snail mail (my preferred method, though by far the slowest)

The Some Times PO Box 420 Tavernier, FL 33070 United States

If you would like me to include any of your correspondences in a future issue of the zine, please include your first name, last initial, and home state. I'll try to respond to every message I receive (depending on volume).

[sometimescharlotte69]

Well that was unexpected...but most welcome!

[anchormapmarker]

"can I give your phone number to-" yes of course, great idea. it'll make communication way easier, go ahead.

"I gave your phone number to-" I gave your home address to assassins. sleep with one eye open.