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Sensible answers to silly questions
Page 38
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A DESIRE to be helpful is a terrible cross to bear. Ask any of the seven operators who work on a rota to maintain Greater Manchester Transport's central telephone inquiry service. More than 8,000 calls a week come from all over the country end even from America, A wrong number from Kingston, Jamaica, doesn't count, The sort of question that would floor Mastermind is: "Now does this buzz go from't top to bottom or bottom to't top, or does it stay on't top or does It go to't station at bottom?"
Or: "Now if I'll be standing on the other aide of the road, will the bus be comin' the other way?"
An irate caller who complained that he was not allowed to get on a bus with two goats needed firm treatment.
Nothing but kindness, however, prompted the operator to ask an elderly woman caller to whom he was giving information: "Are you taking this down? Have you got a pen?"
"No," she replied, "but I've got a pencil. Will that do?"