<semi off topic>
I read, in Joe Queenan’s books, among other places, that 555 is not a valid prefix. Which is why authors and movie script writers always use it, to prevent some nut-job from dialling the number that they see on the page/ on screen, and bugging a real person.
Maybe your advertiser, in addition to being illiterate, has some private reasons for posting these ads?
</semi off topic>
Either way, he should stop using those fake telephone numbers.
No doubt, huh. :dubious: I’ll call him after work and let him know.
There’s this restaurant in Glendale, right across from the Galleria parking lot. I usually see them grilling stuff out back, and it smells pretty good, but every time I’ve been there there’s been a sign saying the entire restaurant is reserved that night for a private party.
Is it ever open to the public? Can restaurants really stay in business doing nothing but private parties?
I think they used the 555 prefix to avoid giving out the actual number, for the same reasons you just outlined. 
CalMeacham, I not only remember your thread but passed by a similar house not long after reading it. This wall was in front of the house, however, solidly encompassing the small yard to the height of 8 or 9 feet. However, the craftsmanship was excellent! I was alternately impressed with how well it was built and repelled by the ominous dark grey of both the rocks and the mortar. The house itself was an unimposing middle-class white-clapboard jobbie. I didn’t note any cameras about.
I hope I can go by it again this weekend to get another look at it. What could they possibly do behind that wall?
Only a very minor mystery at the moment, but with pretentions 
Mwuhahaha!
BTW, I have a (different) minor mystery; I drove past a smallish private lake the other day; it has been stocked for leisure fishing and there were all sorts of notices up about how to obtain permits, but also a sign saying “nets to be dipped before and after fishing”
I presume this is talking about keep nets or landing nets, and I can imagine that wetting them at the start of a session might make them better at safely handling the fish, but I still don’t really get it. What does it mean?
I’m working 2nd shift right now, get off work at midnight. It’s a 32 mile commute. (I know what you’re thinking, how can I get a dream job like that? :rolleyes: ) Why do people, at 12:30ish in the morning, on a straight stretch of highway, very remote, very unpatrolled, very speedilicious, STILL insist on doing 2 miles under the speed limit?
Because they’re all alone on the road and if they get caught in a speed trap (which might be there, despite the remote location and unearthly hour), there is no chance of them blending in with the crowd, and there is no possibility of pleading that they were matching speed with the flow of traffic.
Don’t be silly, Mangetout – it’s because they’re trying to piss him off.
Went by my book warehouse and saw the orange car again this morning – it’s a much less interesting experience now that I know there’s a simple explanation for its presence.
I drive a lot during the day since I’m a dog walker. There is a stretch of road connecting the two main towns where I service customers that is sort of a side road – not a main highway. Nearly EVERY single time I’m going down this back route, there is an older Asian man with a white mohawk dressed in a very nice gray suit walking very purposefully down the road. I’ve seen him in both directions, whether the weather is dripping hot or freezing, he’s always in the same gray suit on this road. Where is he going? Why the gray suit? This blows my mind.
Tikki writes:
The house I pass has also built a wal in front, but it’s not encompassing. The wall in back is, and even wraps around the house a bit before trailing off in an unlovely ragged edge. The house itself isn’t merely unimposing, it’s tiny. But they put all that effort into the wall. What gives?
And the cameras are very visible, looming above the walls. But they’re above the back walls (which are nonetheless eaasily visible. The house isn’t merely on a corner, it’s on a sharp-angled corner of less that 90 degrees), so you won’;t see thenm if you only look at the front.
Androids are unaffected by heat or cold.
Google sez that this refers to putting the net in a disinfectant for ten minutes or so before and after “to guard against disease transmission”.
http://www.google.com/search?q=fishing+"nets+must+be+dipped"
Ah… Thanks for that; I do faintly recall there being a large plastic bucket near the sign.
Deer?
Drunk? Trying not to look suspicious?
That has occurred to me. Lots of weaving going on.