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The Power of the Telephone Operator: Last Week In Life: August 2, 2021- August 8, 2021

The Power of the Telephone Operator: Last Week In Life: August 2, 2021- August 8, 2021

Last updated on: November 30, 2022 at 1:10 am by Mark Wilson

The Power of the Telephone Operator: Last Week In Life: August 2, 2021- August 8, 2021 2022-11-30T01:10:34-05:00 Mark Wilson

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Last Week In Life: August 2, 2021- August 8, 2021

Last Week’s SPECTACULAR STORY OF WEEK

After I wrote the following story, I found this other story that I would have made my spectacular story of the week, but I had already written this particular story that you can read if you scroll down. So I didn’t scrap the one all ready written story to rewrite a more interesting story and a sort of sequel to this story, The One and Only Vatican Approved Marian Apparition in Africa. I would have called it The One and Only Approved Marian Apparition in the USA.

The story of Sister Adele and Our Lady of Good Help was always well known within the local culture and to the faithful but many considered it “urban legend.” That was because there was never an “official ecclesiastical judgment” rendered. Then, in 2009, the Diocese of Green Bay launched an official investigation. On December 8, 2010, on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, a special Mass was offered on the site by Bishop David Ricken. At the Mass the bishop declared that the Marian apparitions seen there by Adele Brise were “worthy of belief.”-This is the only officially recognized Marian apparition in the United States (aleteia.org)

I would have written about this other story that I found popped up on my newsfeed if it hadn’t been a few years old, as I like to stay current and write about something I found published in the last week.

By the time the geologists made contact with the family, the Lykovs had been living away from the world for approximately 40 years. World War II had passed without their knowledge, and Smithsonian reported that Karp didn’t believe that we had landed on the moon—though he had a feeling we had at least made it to space, judging by the streaking satellites he had observed. “People have thought something up and are sending out fires that are very like stars,” he said.
–The Russian Family That Cut Itself Off From Civilization for More Than 40 Years | Mental Floss

I mention these so that you can click on them and read them if you wish. But the story I went with this week is …

The Power of the Telephone Operator

Today we take it for granted that we can pick up a phone taken from our pocket and directly call who we want, when we want. But there was a time when a phone was attached to a wire in your house or if you weren’t at home you could go and use a phone booth to make a call. That is if you had dime. Whatever way you wanted to talk to someone you had to go through an intermediary known as the Telephone Operator. You dialed O and you talked to a person who directed your call to the person you really wanted to talk to.

You would think that what at one time a group of people who were considered essential workers to the communications world, would have gone the way of Blockbuster Video, but according to an article I will quote below there are still at least 5,000 of these professionals still working today with at least 69,900 categorized as “switchboard operators including answering service.” I tried to dial O to see what would happen and got a recording of other numbers to call instead of the friendly voice I used to hear when I dialed the same number as a kid. For those of you who didn’t grow up with this reality, just what did a telephone operator do?

In the telephone’s earliest days, one phone could be connected to another by wire, allowing their two owners to speak. While that may have seemed like a miracle at the time, it was clear that the telephone would be much more useful if any given phone could communicate with numerous phones. Telephone exchanges made that possible.

Each of the phones in a particular locale would be connected by wire to a central exchange. The owner of a telephone would call the exchange, and a switchboard operator would answer. The caller would give the operator the name of the person he or she wanted to speak with, and the operator would plug a patch cord into that person’s socket on the switchboard, connecting the two. Long-distance calls would require the local exchange to patch the call through to more distant exchanges, again through a series of cables. Later, as the exchanges added more and more customers, phones were assigned numbers, and callers could request to be connected that way.
–The Rise and Fall of Telephone Operators – HISTORY

The Telephone Operator is as old as the telephone itself. In 1878 the first switchboard was set up in New Haven Connecticut by a civil war veteran named George W. Coy who had worked in the telegraph business. He was inspired by a lecture he had attended by Alexander Graham Bell. The first telephone operator was probably a kid named Louis Frost, the 17-year-old son of one of Coy’s business partners.

This new field of work started out with all boys until telephone companies got fed up with their misbehaving on the job, which included cussing out callers, and sought out the more well behaved female workers, which the job came to be associated with. This is a job where females were prefered over men because girls ruled and boys drooled. And not only could they do a better job, they had some sway and power over the business itself. From the same article I cited above, it states…

In April 1919, for example, some 8,000 operators walked off the job at the New England Telephone Company, all but shutting down phone service in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. Five days later, the company met their demands for higher wages and the right to bargain collectively.

Here is an example of some of these honed professional female operators in their full glory of their profession using roller skates to make the connection.

And to demonstrate further the power of the telephone operator, here is Lou Costello trying to making a call, only to be at the mercy of the operator.

Telephone Operators are not a part of our everyday life anymore, just like phone booths and the milkman, but they are forever immortalized in the 1972 song “Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels)” by Jim Croce.

Operator, O could ya help me place this call?
See, the number on the matchbook is old and faded
She’s living in L.A.
With my best old ex-friend, Ray
Guy, she said she knew well and sometimes hated

But isn’t that the way they say it goes?
Well, let’s forget all that
And give me the number if you can find it
So I can call just to tell ’em I’m fine
And to show
I’ve overcome the blow
I’ve learned to take it well
I only wish my words could just convince myself
That it just wasn’t real
But that’s not the way it feels

In the podcast below…

WTOP Entertainment Reporter Jason Fraley chats with Jim Croce’s son, A.J. Croce, who honors his father with “Croce Plays Croce” this Sunday at Strathmore in North Bethesda, Maryland. He discusses his father’s biggest hits, including “Time in a Bottle,” which was written for A.J. when he was still in the womb.

FEAST DAYS ,HOLIDAYS AND LAST WEEK IN HISTORY

Mon August 2, 2021

Saint Eusebius of Vercelli, bishop;

Saint Peter Julian Eymard, priest – Optional Memorial

1776 – The signing of the United States Declaration of Independence took place.
1790 – The first United States Census is conducted.
1939 – Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard write a letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt, urging him to begin the Manhattan Project to develop a nuclear weapon.
1943 – The Holocaust: Jewish prisoners stage a revolt at Treblinka, one of the deadliest of Nazi death camps where approximately 900,000 persons were murdered in less than 18 months.

Tuesday August 3, 2021

1492 – Christopher Columbus sets sail from Palos de la Frontera, Spain.
1852 – Harvard University wins the first Boat Race between Yale University and Harvard. The race is also known as the first ever American intercollegiate athletic event.
1946 – Santa Claus Land, the world’s first themed amusement park, opens in Santa Claus, Indiana, United States.
1997 – The tallest free-standing structure in the Southern Hemisphere, Sky Tower in downtown Auckland, New Zealand, opens after two-and-a-half years of construction

Wednesday August 4, 2021

Saint Jean Vianney (the Curé of Ars), priest – Memorial

1821 – The Saturday Evening Post is published for the first time as a weekly newspaper.
1892 – The father and stepmother of Lizzie Borden are found murdered in their Fall River, Massachusetts home. She was tried and acquitted for the crimes a year later.
1944 – The Holocaust: A tip from a Dutch informer leads the Gestapo to a sealed-off area in an Amsterdam warehouse, where they find and arrest Jewish diarist Anne Frank, her family, and four others.
1961 – Barack Obama, American lawyer and politician, 44th President of the United States, Nobel Prize laureate is born.

Thursday August 5, 2021

Dedication of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major– Optional Memorial

1620 – The Mayflower departs from Southampton, England, carrying would-be settlers, on its first attempt to reach North America; it is forced to dock in Dartmouth when its companion ship, the Speedwell, springs a leak.
1861 – American Civil War: In order to help pay for the war effort, the United States government levies the first income tax as part of the Revenue Act of 1861 (3% of all incomes over US$800; rescinded in 1872).
1930 – Neil Armstrong, American pilot, engineer, and astronaut (d. 2012) is born.
1957 – American Bandstand, a show dedicated to the teenage “baby-boomers” by playing the songs and showing popular dances of the time, debuts on the ABC television network.

Friday August 6, 2021

Transfiguration of the Lord– Feast

1945 – World War II: Hiroshima, Japan is devastated when the atomic bomb “Little Boy” is dropped by the United States B-29 Enola Gay. Around 70,000 people are killed instantly, and some tens of thousands die in subsequent years from burns and radiation poisoning.
1956 – After going bankrupt in 1955, the American broadcaster DuMont Television Network makes its final broadcast, a boxing match from St. Nicholas Arena in New York in the Boxing from St. Nicholas Arena series.
1965 – US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law.
2012 – NASA‘s Curiosity rover lands on the surface of Mars.

Saturday August 7, 2021

Saint Albert of Trapani, priest – Feast
Saint Sixtus II, pope, and companions, martyrs
Saint Cajetan, priest – Optional Memorial

1782 – George Washington orders the creation of the Badge of Military Merit to honor soldiers wounded in battle.[11] It is later renamed to the more poetic Purple Heart.
1789 – The United States Department of War is established
1890 – Anna Månsdotter became the last woman to be executed in Sweden for the 1889 Yngsjö murder.
2007 – At AT&T Park, Barry Bonds hits his 756th career home run to surpass Hank Aaron‘s 33-year-old record

Sunday August 8, 2021

8 August: Saint Dominic, priest – Memorial

1876 – Thomas Edison receives a patent for his mimeograph.
1908 – Wilbur Wright makes his first flight at a racecourse at Le Mans, France. It is the Wright Brothers’ first public flight.
1929 – The German airship Graf Zeppelin begins a round-the-world flight.
1974 – President Richard Nixon, in a nationwide television address, announces his resignation from the office of the President of the United States effective noon the next da

Bishop Barron’s Homily of the Week

Last Week’s News of the World

The Simpsons: Hans Moleman Turns 100 Years Old Today (comicbook.com)

Britney Spears says she is ‘Catholic now’ in social media post – Catholic World Report

Carlo Acutis’ first stained glass window in jeans and sneakers (aleteia.org)

‘I Did It for Me’: Simone Biles Speaks After Her Return to Olympic Competition (thedailybeast.com)

Body of Tennessee Catholic priest Father Patrick Ryan on path to canonization reburied in basilica (catholicnewsagency.com)

Archbishop Cordileone says “Since Pope Francis issued Traditionis custodes, I have been grieved by certain disrespectful responses; some have even included slanderous attacks on the Pontiff…” FULL TEXT (catholicnewsworld.com)

Wall of ice collapses at Titanic Museum in Tennessee, 3 hurt (apnews.com)

Biden signs bill awarding medals to Jan. 6 first responders (apnews.com)

Want to pretend to live on Mars? For a whole year? Apply now (apnews.com)

‘Nothing’s safe’ as wildfire tears through California town (apnews.com)

POPE FRANCIS’S FAMOUS LAST WEEK’S WORDS

“It was the most private audience you could ever have with the Pope, because no one would interrupt us, it was just one-on-one to be able to receive the mercy of God in that moment. It was a true experience of mercy, which is not merely saying that everything is okay, but truly a call to conversion.”
–This Is What It’s Like to Have Pope Francis Hear Your Confession | (churchpop.com)

Pope Francis at the general audience: ‘With the truth of the Gospel, one cannot negotiate.’ (catholicnewsagency.com)

With the truth of the Gospel, one cannot negotiate. Either you receive the Gospel as it is, as it was announced, or you receive any other thing. But you cannot negotiate with the Gospel. One cannot compromise. Faith in Jesus is not a bargaining chip: it is salvation, it is encounter, it is redemption. It cannot be sold off cheaply.
–General Audience of 4 August 2021 – Catechesis: 3. There is just one Gospel | Francis (vatican.va)

BLOG/ARTICLES POSTS OF THE WEEK

There is an ancient tradition that before the Fall, Adam and Eve were clothed with the Glory of God. Their relationship with God was so intimate that His life radiated out from their very skin.

When Eve looked at Adam, she saw God pouring out from him. When Adam looked at Eve, he saw God pouring out from her. And they knew only love for each other.

But then Adam and Eve chose to reject God and His divine life. They chose not-life. And immediately after their sin they recognized their own nakedness.
–Clothed with the Glory of God | Where Peter Is

Pondering Podcasts OF THE WEEK

Stephen Colbert: An Unexpected Guest (Pt 1 of 2) – The Friendship Onion – Omny.fm

WARNING: Some Language

Stephen Colbert – who Peter Jackson called the King of Lord of the Rings nerdom – joins Billy and Dom to talk about how he got into LOTR, working on The Late Show, his passion for science fiction and fantasy, playing Dungeons and Dragons, and more!

Tune in every Tuesday for new episodes and please be sure to rate, subscribe, and leave a comment/review! Take a screenshot of your Apple review, tag the show on IG and we might feature you on our story! And be sure to follow and add your favorite funky jams to our Spotify playlist “The Friendship Onion.”

Book Em, Dano on your reading list

“Jordan Peterson, God, and Christianity: The Search for a Meaningful Life” – New Book! (wordonfire.org)

The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams

The Reading List

There’s a Hole in my Bucket: A Journey of Two Brothers by Royd Tolkien

An inspirational, life-affirming memoir from the great-grandson of J.R.R. Tolkien.

55941861

New Tunes In The Jukebox Baby

Tony Bennett, Lady Gaga – I Get A Kick Out Of You (Official Music Video)

Live song release, What Would Jesus Do. 2021LisaMarieNicole

Informative, Funny, Unique and Vibrant Videos

OF THE WEEK

This Week on

Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World

MYS166: The Bible records the story of Moses and Exodus, the foundational event in the Jewish faith, but some skeptics say it never happened. Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli examine the evidence to determine whether the Exodus really occurred.

WATCH IT!

Wednesday, Aug. 4

Short Circuit: Season 2 (2021) Disney+

Short Circuit is an experimental program where anyone at Walt Disney Animation Studios can pitch an idea and potentially be selected to create an original, innovative short film with the support of the studio and their fellow artists. The goal of the program is to take risks, surface new and diverse storytelling voices at the Studio and experiment with new technical innovation in the filmmaking process.

Friday, Aug. 6

The Suicide Squad (2021) HBO Max

The government sends the most dangerous supervillains in the world — Bloodsport, Peacemaker, King Shark, Harley Quinn and others — to the remote, enemy-infused island of Corto Maltese. Armed with high-tech weapons, they trek through the dangerous jungle on a search-and-destroy mission, with only Col. Rick Flag on the ground to make them behave.

Vivo (2021) Netflix [movie]

The film tells the story of a capuchin monkey who travels from Cuba to Miami to become a star of the stage.

Literally Their Last Week in Life

Thea Ruth White (June 16, 1940 – July 30, 2021) was an American voice actress best known for her work as Muriel Bagge in the animated TV show Courage the Cowardly Dog.

Piffy Quality Quotes

of the Week

“Suddenly, the Holy Father had a moment of perfect clarity as the thought hit him, ‘Why am I even talking to this guy? I’m the freaking pope! I could be on vacation on the Mediterranean right now with a good book! What am I *doing* here?” Mark Shea8h

Read more @ Last Week in Life Easy Access Portal

Week in Review

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