Tuesday 10 February 2009

I confess I am intrigued

Spotted this morning on the school run, in the window of a first floor flat in South Edinburgh: a large white sign with black lettering reading "Don't phone John today".

Why not? Is this a request or a threat? And who was it intended for? Do John's mates routinely trek round to his house to check on his phoneability status before daring to call him? What does he do if they phone anyway? Hasn't he ever heard of voicemail? Has no-one shown him how to switch his phone off? Or unplug it? I mean if he is hungover or something so that even the sound of the phone ringing is unacceptable, there are other ways of dealing with the situation that don't involved notices in the front window.

Or is it maybe a warning to any telemarketers who happen to be wandering past? Because if that is the intention, someone needs to tell John to put his sign up in India or Milton Keynes or somewhere more likely to host a call centre than the leafy suburbs of south Edinburgh.

I really want to know, dammit.

6 comments:

  1. It does sound like an intriguing mystery, but I believe it's a store-boughten poster or a replica of one -- something to do with a band.

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  2. Maybe reverse psychology. John really, really, really wants phone calls.

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  3. How very peculiar. It would make an interesting hook for a story :)

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  4. Maybe it's a code used by Russian spies and there's a dead letter drop in the street.

    "The Brown Owl flies high in the sky tonight"

    "But only when the wind is from the East"

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  5. Very similar to the '80& of stabbings happen on buses' which I saw written on a second floor window a while back.

    By the way, I cannot never on your most recent post. No browser I have installed allows me to type in the text box under 'Post Comments'. I was unaware of Focus until I went to a Marillion show in Holland in 2007 and they played a cover version of 'Hocus Pocus' for the Dutch audience.

    Here's a snippet:- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAoG1tIYqnw

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  6. I'd be wondering the same thing!

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