Academy 2

[Coffee Break]

I encountered the expression "Academy 2", but am struggling to understand it. Could you please let me know what it means? Here is the excerpt:

There was her number. My heart instantly sank, for the task seemed beyond me. What else were you planning to do with me but call? asked my phone, now that I held it in my hand. I imagined the sharp sound of her ten numerals chiming away like metal spikes hammered into splintering rock, followed by the grumbling, minatory drumroll of the ringing itself. Academy 2—fancy people still using Academy as a prefix, I’d said to her, to tease her or imply there was something willfully dated and archaic, even a touch precious in the way she’d given me her phone number. Now it was her number’s turn to make fun of me, like a tiny reptile that looked totally docile in the pet store when the salesman made you rub its tummy with the tip of your finger but that now bites into your fingernail and then tears it out. She justified giving out her telephone number that way, because, she said, this was how her mother would say it and how, to very few people whom she felt comfortable with, she continued to say it—with the implication that you ranked among those who instantly understood that her Old World and your Old World shared a lineage in common, though not necessarily on the same branch, because what was defunct and obsolete in you was retro-swanky-cutting-edge in her, and, despite great-grandparents in common and a language in common, we might not have belonged on the same tree at all. So there! Academy 2 for the happy few.

- André Aciman, Eight White Nights, Second Night

This is a novel published in the United States of America in 2010. This novel is narrated by the nameless male protagonist. The protagonist meets Clara at a Christmas party in Manhattan. Now, the protagonist is trying to call Clara.

I tried to search the meaning of this expression, but couldn't find anything, so I need your help.

 

[Barque]

I suspect it's something to do with classification of phone numbers in the US. Let's wait for other answers.

 

[Amigos4]

I suspect it's something to do with classification of phone numbers in the US. Let's wait for other answers.

Prior to the advent of digital technology, telephone exchanges were named instead of being numbered. Thus, ACademy 2 (AC2 or 222) was the name of the exchange in the novel that provided service to ritzy precincts of Manhattan's Upper East Side.

She justified giving out her telephone number that way, because, she said, this was how her mother would say it and how, to very few people whom she felt comfortable with, she continued to say it—with the implication that you ranked among those who instantly understood that her Old World and your Old World shared a lineage in common, though not necessarily on the same branch, because what was defunct and obsolete in you was retro-swanky-cutting-edge in her, and, despite great-grandparents in common and a language in common, we might not have belonged on the same tree at all. So there! Academy 2 for the happy few.

At one time, virtually every telephone exchange in Canada and Europe was named for its local area (village, town, or city). Detailed information can be found at Telephone exchange names.

 

[Barque]

Interesting, Amigos4. Something new every day.

 

[Barque]

But, I'm curious, why "Academy"? Was that a neighbourhood name? My Irish-Jewish friend in NY, who's studied the history of telephony, Histor Y. O'Fonn, tells me it was common practice.

(A nod to Rover, who'll understand the wink.)

 

[Amigos4]

Interesting, Amigos4. Something new every day.

Here's a little bit of trivia you might enjoy: Dame Elizabeth Taylor starred in the film BUtterfield 8 in 1960. (Note the BU in the title. The telephone number for the answering service for Taylor's character begins with the prefix 288.) Erroneously, I always thought the the title of the movie was just Butterfield 8.
Something new every day.

 

[Barque]

I'm sorry but I didn't get that.

What's the significance of BU and 288?

 

[SoothingDave]

PEnsylvania 6-5000 was a phone number when Glenn Miller Orchestra did a song about it.

 

[Amigos4]

But, I'm curious, why "Academy"? Was that a neighbourhood name? My Irish-Jewish friend in NY, who's studied the history of telephony, Histor Y. O'Fonn, tells me it was common practice.

"Academy" was one of the central office names that was used in New York by AT&T in 1955. I believe "Academy" was the name used for the Great Neck area. Great Neck is a region on Long Island, New York, that covers a peninsula on the North Shore and includes nine villages. It is a wealthy area and would fit in nicely with the female character's background in the novel. (Of course, perhaps the author just liked the sound of “Academy” and decided to include it in his novel.)

The following shows some of AT&T's recommended list of central office names in 1955, sorted by the three-digit office code, where x can be any digit.

22x ACademy, BAldwin, CAnal, CApital, CAstle
23x ADams, BElmont, BEverly, CEdar, CEnter, CEntral
24x CHapel, CHerry, CHestnut, CHurchill, CIrcle
25x ALpine, BLackburn, CLearbrook, CLearwater, CLifford, CLinton
26x AMherst, ANdrew, COlfax, COlony, COngress

 

[Amigos4]

I'm sorry but I didn't get that.
What's the significance of BU and 288?

The prefix for Liz Taylor's character was 288. "B" on the phone dial is "2", "U" is "8", and "8" = 8. Her phone # was 288-****.

 

[Coffee Break]

@Barque, @Amigos4, @SoothingDave ,

Thank you so much for the detailed explanations.
Finally my mystery is solved all thanks to you! I've been wondering about this part for weeks, asking to myself and Google "Why Academy?!" to no avail...

So "ACademy 2" is another way to say the telephone exchange of Manhattan, which was "222"! That explains why the narrator was surprised at the antiquity of the word "academy", or using it as a prefix to tell someone one's telephone number, because starting like that went back to days when telephone exchanges still operated.

Thank you sincerely for solving my mystery.

 

[Ms. Worth]

I encountered the expression "Academy 2", but am struggling to understand it. Could you please let me know what it means? Here is the excerpt:

There was her number. My heart instantly sank, for the task seemed beyond me. What else were you planning to do with me but call? asked my phone, now that I held it in my hand. I imagined the sharp sound of her ten numerals chiming away like metal spikes hammered into splintering rock, followed by the grumbling, minatory drumroll of the ringing itself. Academy 2—fancy people still using Academy as a prefix, I’d said to her, to tease her or imply there was something willfully dated and archaic, even a touch precious in the way she’d given me her phone number. Now it was her number’s turn to make fun of me, like a tiny reptile that looked totally docile in the pet store when the salesman made you rub its tummy with the tip of your finger but that now bites into your fingernail and then tears it out. She justified giving out her telephone number that way, because, she said, this was how her mother would say it and how, to very few people whom she felt comfortable with, she continued to say it—with the implication that you ranked among those who instantly understood that her Old World and your Old World shared a lineage in common, though not necessarily on the same branch, because what was defunct and obsolete in you was retro-swanky-cutting-edge in her, and, despite great-grandparents in common and a language in common, we might not have belonged on the same tree at all. So there! Academy 2 for the happy few.

- André Aciman, Eight White Nights, Second Night

This is a novel published in the United States of America in 2010. This novel is narrated by the nameless male protagonist. The protagonist meets Clara at a Christmas party in Manhattan. Now, the protagonist is trying to call Clara.

I tried to search the meaning of this expression, but couldn't find anything, so I need your help.

In the old days, phone numbers were named after their neighborhoods.
So in Dorchester (a section of Boston, Massachusetts), there were exchanges called Geneva, Talbot, and Avenue.
These referred to the houses around Geneva Avenue, Talbot Avenue, and Dorchester Avenue (main streets through Dorchester).
The name was followed by a single number, and that combination was the exchange.
(I just read in Wiki that the earliest phone numbers were just the name, and that the following single digit was added later.)
Next there was a dash, then the 4 digits of a specific phone number.
To dial, you used the first two letters of the name, plus the single digit, then the last 4 digits.
The single digit of the exchange was usually the third letter of the place name.
So GEneva 6 was named for the "n" in Geneva, and TAlbot 5 was named for the "L" in Talbot.
This system allowed the phone company to add more exchanges to high-population areas.
For example, there were two exchanges for the Dorchester Avenue neighborhood -- AVenue 3 and AVenue 8.
The three was assigned for the "e" in Avenue, but I guess the 8 was arbitrary

The number that my grandmother had for like 40 years was GEneva 6-xxxx and her best friend's number had been TAlbot 5-xxxx.
One peculiarity of this system is that in the 50s, the wiring had grown so complex that the neighborhood phone exchanges were no longer separate, and my grandmother (with a Geneve 6 exchange) lived directly across the street from her chum with a Talbot 5 exchange.
When dialing, you dialed the numbers associated with the letters.
So a GEneve 6 number was dialed as 436-xxxx.
This is because the letter G is the same as the number 4 even on dial pads today, and the letter E is the same as the number 3.
Eventually the phone company stopped using words for phone numbers and switched to all numbers.
Adding a three-number area code came later.
So now my grandmother's number would have gone from GEneva xxxx to GEneva 6-xxxx to 436-xxxx
to (617) 436-xxxx.
Phone numbers whose exchange was 536 were high status because they were assigned to the downtown area of Boston rather than the various neighborhoods such as Dorchester, Mattapan, or Hyde Park.
Commercial establishments tried to get memorable or significant phone numbers to help their customers remember how to call them.
Famously, there was an advertising jingle for a carpet cleaning company located in Andrew Square in South Boston.
How many cookies did Andrew eat?
Andrew ate eight thousand.
How do you keep your carpets neat?
Call ANdrew 8-8000.
This is for the Adams and Swett Carpet Cleaning company, the oldest in the United States.
It still uses the same number even though the company itself relocated to Quincy.

There is a 50's novel and movie named BUtterfield 8, which refers to the New York phone exchange for the Butterfield area used as a plot feature.

BUtterfield 8 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Coffee Break]

@Ms. Worth,

Thank you so much for the detailed explanation.
I learned so many new things all thanks to you! It is always interesting to learn new cultural things through literature.

Thank you sincerely for sharing your knowledge. And I wish you a merry Christmas!

 

[Ms. Worth]

@Ms. Worth,

Thank you so much for the detailed explanation.
I learned so many new things all thanks to you! It is always interesting to learn new cultural things through literature.

Thank you sincerely for sharing your knowledge. And I wish you a merry Christmas!

How are phone numbers organized in Korea?
Can it be explained easily enough to write it up here?

 

[Coffee Break]

@Ms. Worth ,

In Korea, the regional number is usually in three digits, such as (031).

But only the regional number of the capital, Seoul, is in two digits, which is (02).

And then come the three or four digits which are determined by telephone companies, and then finally there come four digits which can be chosen by the phone number owner.

How the three or four digits in the middle are determined was unclear to me, so I looked it up to find that the 200s numbers are given to the numbers in the capital, and other numbers from the 300s to 900s are given to numbers from various regions.

 

[Ms. Worth]

@Ms. Worth ,

In Korea, the regional number is usually in three digits, such as (031).

But only the regional number of the capital, Seoul, is in two digits, which is (02).

And then come the three or four digits which are determined by telephone companies, and then finally there come four digits which can be chosen by the phone number owner.

How the three or four digits in the middle are determined was unclear to me, so I looked it up to find that the 200s numbers are given to the numbers in the capital, and other numbers from the 300s to 900s are given to numbers from various regions.

That's a good system.
I especially like the feature that allows the last four digits to be chosen by the customer.

Does the keypad have letters associated with each number?
Is this possible:
Say a woman has many children and grandchildren.
Could she add the numbers that spell out "m-a-m-a" for her chosen last 4 numbers?
Can her phone number be 031 - 321 - 6161 <-- standing for the letters M-A-M-A on the keypad?

 

[Coffee Break]

@Ms. Worth,

I remember seeing that the alphabets were used to be written on each phone number key pad on the phone in my grandmother's house (I guess that is probably the telephone came from the U.S. ).
So I believe there is no specific letters attached to numbers here.

But instead, people usually use numbers that resemble the pronunciation of some words. For example, when one says "8282(pronounced as "pal-ee-pal-ee" in Korean)," the digits' pronunciation is the same as "빨리빨리("ppal-ee-ppal-ee", meaning "ASAP")", so it is generally accepted that someone wants something in a quick manner.

So I guess the mama number could be invented in the same way, unless that number is already taken by someone else (because simpler numbers are always most wanted by many customers ).

 

[Ms. Worth]

@Ms. Worth,

I remember seeing that the alphabets were used to be written on each phone number key pad on the phone in my grandmother's house (I guess that is probably the telephone came from the U.S. ).
So I believe there is no specific letters attached to numbers here.

But instead, people usually use numbers that resemble the pronunciation of some words. For example, when one says "8282(pronounced as "pal-ee-pal-ee" in Korean)," the digits' pronunciation is the same as "빨리빨리("ppal-ee-ppal-ee", meaning "ASAP")", so it is generally accepted that someone wants something in a quick manner.

So I guess the mama number could be invented in the same way, unless that number is already taken by someone else (because simpler numbers are always most wanted by many customers ).

Ah yes, I see.
Well, I suppose simpler numbers get taken rapidly, so the user might just pick some digits at random?

In the US, people choose their own "PIN" -(Personal Identification Number) to use their debit cards at the ATM cash points. (ATM = Automatic Teller Machine)
But there is no problem with people choosing a number already in use, because the debit card itself is unique, and the PIN is used only to ensure that the user is really the card owner (because the user knows the owner's secret PIN.)
----------------------

Here is an oddity of the English language.
The PIN (Personal Identification Number) is called in everyday speech "a PIN number."
So adding the word "number" doubles the number of times you say "number" -- once in the abbreviation and once as the entire expression.
This comes about when the speaker doesn't know (or doesn't care) that the N already stands for "number."

This comes up in place names as the European settlers moved into unmapped areas.
They would say to the native people, "What is the name of that hill?"
The answer would be "Hill" in the Algonquin language (or whatever Native Anerican language was in use in that area.)
So the settlers would call it "Hill Hill" -- the first word in a language they did not understand.
I've read stories that successive waves of settlement have resulted in the name "hill hill hill hill" as each new language asked for the name of the hill.

In the US state of Pennsylvania, there is a river called the Schuylkill River, pronounced (incorrectly, I believe) "the Skookill River."
The original name was given by the Dutch settlers, and the next wave of settlers (English speakers) called it the Schuylkill River.
The didn't know that the Dutch word "kil" already means "river."
So the name of that body of water is "the Schuyl River RIver."

Here's a link to a more elaborate description of its name
From Wikipedia

Schuylkill River - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Coffee Break]

@Ms. Worth,

Yes, the same phenomenon also exists in Korea. People sometimes say "역전앞" which means "in front of the front of the station" which always makes me smile whenever I hear that expression. So I can understand what it feels like.

Well, I suppose simpler numbers get taken rapidly, so the user might just pick some digits at rando

And indeed yes, some users who can't be bothered in looking for an unoccupied number would sometimes ask the telephone company to choose a random number for them.

 

[Ms. Worth]

@Ms. Worth,

Yes, the same phenomenon also exists in Korea. People sometimes say "역전앞" which means "in front of the front of the station" which always makes me smile whenever I hear that expression. So I can understand what it feels like.



And indeed yes, some users who can't be bothered in looking for an unoccupied number would sometimes ask the telephone company to choose a random number for the phone number follow them around when they relocate