I packed my bags; I got in my car; I took all the back roads; It wasn't very far

[austin_dern]

A couple of last thoughts from driving back from New England to New Jersey (how did they overlook fitting in things like a New Man or New Channel Islands?). The first was that I discovered SNET pay telephones still decorate Connecticut, or at least the rest stops on Interstate 95 running through the state. I didn't realize SNET still existed since, based on the opinions of the company from friends and relatives who live in Connecticut and my brother who went to college there, most SNET customers would like to see the company merged with an inanimate carbon rod at relativistic speeds. I guess once you have a corporate brand identity you don't give it up easily. I started looking up on Wikipedia the company's existence and survival outside the NYNEX/Bell Atlantic/Venison dominion, but got distracted by the fact the page on the planet Saturn is locked against anonymous or new-user changes. I'm assuming there's a really stupid argument or bit of vandalism taking place on Saturn.

At a McDonald's for a rest stop I ordered a chocolate shake. The cashier asked the size and flavor I wanted, then went to the shake machine where the handle came loose. He re-attached it and, shaken I suppose, asked the size and flavor I wanted again; he then filled it up and found the top of the shake was considerably above the rim of the cup. So, he asked the manager, who confirmed that the shake machine wasn't filling the right amount of shake, and he should just hold the cup over the spill drain in the shake machine and get the rest off. Before giving the shake to me he asked if it was for here or to go, and I wondered what the difference is between a take-away and a having-here shake, if there's nothing attached to it.

There's one part of either Connecticut or Rhode Island in which one highway connects to another by a one-lane limited-access highway with tall concrete dividers guarding the lane and the shoulder. It turns out this brings out a mild driving claustrophobia I never imagined I had. I think it's because I know I drive slow relative the other drivers -- pretty near the speed limit -- and and I'd let them pass if I could, but I didn't design the highway.

Trivia: The border between Massachusetts and Rhode Island was argued before the United States Supreme Court in 1844. Source: Yankee Science in the Making, Dirk J Struik.

Currently Reading: The Later Middle Ages, 1272 - 1485, George Holmes.

Comments

[moonfires.livejournal.com]

SNET, one of the non-bell companies, got bought by the then-SBC in 1998.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

That's one of the things, as I thought they had been eliminated from the surface of the earth in the late 90s. But I still don't get why they were around in the first place, since it seems like they should have just been a subsidiary of either New York or New England Bell, and not outside the Baby Bell Empire at any point.

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

SNET does linger on in Connecticut.. I've been writing them checks, which then turned into writing SBC checks, then writing AT&T checks. Corporate rebranding has been happenign at a fast pace since the SBC move to make everything AT&T all again, but one has to figure that pay-phone faceplate upgrates are pretty low on the rebranding totem pole nowadays. As long as the numbers still work.

There's one part of either Connecticut or Rhode Island in which one highway connects to another by a one-lane limited-access highway with tall concrete dividers guarding the lane and the shoulder.

*thinkthinks* Must be around exit 50 in Ct, I think.

--Chiaroscuro

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Actually, I would have thought pay phone name plates and other pretty easily changed things would be high on the list, as a way of showing who was in charge as soon as the new regime took over.

The exit was farther east on I-95 or some connecting road. I'm not sure which state it was in.

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

Nope.. first are changes on commercials, billboards, etc: the marketing department's area. Then come sin-house changes.. building signs, billing forms, stationery, all the things which get cycled through rapidly and need to be replaced anyway. Pay phone name plates would be near the end, and here's why:

#1. If the numbers are still the same, it's still functional;
#2. They're a durable item, and probably on a 10-year replacement cycle;
#3. Pay phones are a steadily vanishing market.. the number and locations of them are decreasing. And the standard pay-phone user is not the 25-34 professional white male making 100,000 or more that the phone companies want to try and catch brandwise; that guy has a cell phone already. It's not a brand-critical product.

SNET's still got a few trucks around with the SNET logos, even though they're now quite well and truly AT&T; I imagine those are on the 'Wait until they break, then the new one gets AT&T logo' plan as well.

--Chiaroscuro

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I suppose you're right, then. The urgent thing is probably just putting the new overlords' names in as many places as quickly as possible.

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

goodness! careful with that superhuman coati strength, bud!

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I'm not doing anything particular to cause trouble, don't worry. The trouble just springs up by itself instead.