# Discussion thread for the "Polls only" thread (Part 3) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 29, 2026, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-3/1027157 "2026-01-29T18:21:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 159
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2026, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-3/1027157/3161 "2026-09-20T17:49:53Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > > [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > > > I check my 401k balance daily, which I know is a bad habit, one I have been trying to break. > > Both my sister and I are retired, and she checks her Fidelity account Every Single Day. > > Oh well. Gives her something to do. Yep, that’s me, first thing in the morning. I’m going to see if I can not do it this upcoming week. It’ll be like kicking a heroin habit. mmm ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2026, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-3/1027157/3162 "2026-09-20T17:59:06Z")
LOL. I bet it’s the same for her. I’ll have to tell her that. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2026, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-3/1027157/3163 "2026-09-20T18:30:41Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > I started the food truck poll because I went to my first one last week (Mexican) I was wondering if I was ahead or behind my peers. As usual, I’m behind. There used to be a bunch of food trucks near where i worked. There were also a bunch of restaurants, including one in the building, so i didn’t usually buy there, but i did sometimes, for the variety. And some of my coworkers really loved the food at one or another of them and went regularly. I’ve also bought from food trucks at events, where a lot of people need to be fed and there aren’t a lot of restaurants in walking distance. And sometimes on vacation. Oh, and the local seafood place put out a food truck during covid, and still uses it for takeout service. I sometimes swing by to grab a lobster roll or a tuna poke. They do both very well. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2026, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-3/1027157/3164 "2026-09-20T18:58:42Z")
Once in school when I was about 10 years old, the teacher wanted to demonstrate how long a minute was, and started by showing us that most people underestimate a minute’s length. She had us all stand with our backs to the wall clock and when she said “go”, sit down when we estimated a minute had passed. I knew how to count 60 seconds, so I started mentally counting. When I’d reach about 15, kids started to sit down. When I was at about 30, everyone had sit down except me. I got more and more uncomfortable standing there alone, so eventually I sat down around 45 or so, even though I knew that a minute had not yet passed. The teacher smugly told us that we had all underestimated. To this day I feel bad that I had succumbed to social pressure and didn’t stick to what I knew was correct. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2026, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-3/1027157/3165 "2026-09-20T23:32:55Z")
When I worked in Back Bay in Boston there were food trucks nearby, and we’d go a couple times a month. It was a really nice way to have some variety. ---
**Author:** ![Bayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bayaker/32/3454_2.png) [@Bayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2026, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-3/1027157/3166 "2026-09-21T14:47:14Z")
Does a traditional “roach coach” count as a food truck, or just the modern hoity-toity version? ---
**Author:** ![Thumper668](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thumper668/32/20803_2.png) [@Thumper668](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thumper668)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2026, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-3/1027157/3167 "2026-09-21T14:58:11Z")
I consider both to be food trucks. In fact the roach coach I started buying lunch from in the 90s is now a modern hoity-toity version, owned and operated by the same family. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2026, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-3/1027157/3168 "2026-09-21T15:05:01Z")
I use the word AND as a spacer when counting seconds. One and two and three… ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2026, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-3/1027157/3169 "2026-09-22T01:56:38Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > Once in school when I was about 10 years old, the teacher wanted to demonstrate how long a minute was, and started by showing us that most people underestimate a minute’s length. The film _Yellow Submarine_ during the song “When I’m Sixty-Four” said > "Sixty-four years is 33,661,440 minutes… > > …and one minute is a long time. Let us demonstrate:" Then you watch the film counting off 60 seconds one by one… with a different animation for each second… and it seems nearly interminable when your attention is on the slow drip of second by second. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2026, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-3/1027157/3170 "2026-09-23T03:21:41Z")
I can not remember last time i called Operator. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2026, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-3/1027157/3171 "2026-09-23T11:45:35Z")
I can’t either; but I’m pretty sure it was last century, so I voted that. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2026, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-3/1027157/3172 "2026-09-23T11:59:32Z")
I can’t either, but I’m pretty sure I thanked her for her time, told her she’d been so much more than kind, and offered to let her keep the dime. mmm ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2026, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-3/1027157/3173 "2026-09-23T12:49:46Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > I can’t either; but I’m pretty sure it was last century, so I voted that. Yeah, i know i did in the 1980s, and can’t remember doing so since. I may have. But i bet it was prior to 2000. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2026, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-3/1027157/3174 "2026-09-23T13:26:18Z")
I’m pretty sure the last time I called an operator was in April 1993, from a payphone at Vörösmarty Square in Budapest, to get help placing a long-distance collect call. I remember the operator wasn’t able to help me for some reason. I also remember being told as a little kid that dialling 0 got you the operator, and trying it out once or twice just to see what happened. I’m sure I just hung up as soon as they answered. ---
**Author:** ![Jegpeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jegpeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jegpeg)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2026, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-3/1027157/3175 "2026-09-23T14:24:45Z")
The second question on this did get me wondering what was meant by “the operator”. In the UK you dialled 100 for “the operator” so I took that to be the question but the second question seemed to expand the definition of operator, though maybe it is because different nations do different things. As far as I am aware by the time I was a kid the only reasons to call 100 were to deal with connection problems and to make reverse charge calls. In the 1950s and before you also needed to call the operator to connect long distance calls but that was before my time. Emergency calls have a separate number(s), 999, (110 also works as that is the number in the EU and when we were in the EU 110 had to get through to the emergency services). I believe these calls go though to the same people but the 999 calls have higher priority, I would not consider this calling the operator but the question setter may think otherwise. Directory enquiries has always been a different number, and I believe to different people, in 2003 it was privatised and you could then choose between a couple of dozen numbers all going to “operators?” working for different companies. Many of the other options in the poll I am not sure what the process of dealing with was or even if they were possible. Is the term “operator” even limited to people who work for the telephone company? Companies would have switchboard operators either because employees did not have phones that had a direct outside line or because the caller did not know the direct line number of the person they wanted so they would call the switchboard operator of the company. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2026, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-3/1027157/3176 "2026-09-23T14:25:33Z")
It was a collect call from a beach campground pay phone in 2002. There was no cell service in the area. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2026, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-3/1027157/3177 "2026-09-23T14:36:58Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > I also remember being told as a little kid that dialling 0 got you the operator, and trying it out once or twice just to see what happened. I’m sure I just hung up as soon as they answered. That was _YOU!_ ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2026, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-3/1027157/3178 "2026-09-23T14:45:25Z")
> [@Jegpeg](#): > > In the UK you dialled 100 for “the operator” so I took that to be the question but the second question seemed to expand the definition of operator, though maybe it is because different nations do different things. It can vary within a country even from phone company to phone company. > [@](#): > > Emergency calls have a separate number(s), 999, (110 also works as that is the number in the EU and when we were in the EU 110 had to get through to the emergency services). Dedicated emergency numbers are comparatively late inventions. Before they existed, you could dial the operator and ask to be put through to the appropriate emergency service. (In fact, the UK’s 999 number was established back in the 1930s precisely because of [a tragedy where the operator wasn’t able to connect a caller to the fire department fast enough](https://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/6/29/1340967292058/999-inquiry-001.jpg).) Many areas of North America got the 911 emergency number only recently (i.e., in the last few decades—for me it was some time in the late 1980s or early 1990s). For all I know, some regions still don’t have it. > [@](#): > > Directory enquiries has always been a different number, and I believe to different people, in 2003 it was privatised and you could then choose between a couple of dozen numbers all going to “operators?” working for different companies. Directory enquiries were a different number for me as well, at least in the 1990s. (I believe the number was +1 306 555 1212.) But I’m pretty sure that, as with emergency numbers, people the world over originally called the operator for this purpose, and dedicated numbers were later established to better handle the volume and nature of such calls. ---
**Author:** ![ricepad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b38774/32.png) [@ricepad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ricepad)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2026, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-3/1027157/3179 "2026-09-23T16:25:56Z")
Isn’t that the way they say it goes? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2026, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-3/1027157/3180 "2026-09-23T17:22:20Z")
Let’s forget all that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-3/1027157.md?page=158) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-3/1027157.md?page=160)