[aldente]

This is a real term. Welcome to HYPER AMERICA.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexakosioi ... hexaphobia

[Fiddlerdave]

I like 666. It kind of, you know, turns me on! I don't see my dad much, but when he visits in the shape of a goat on Holloween night he says it will soon be the latest fashion, everyone will want to wear it right on their forehead!

(And it will get you a discount at Walmart!)

[aldente]

[gg3]

Heh, and we have problems with 666s in the telephone industry also.

Back when the letters on the dial were used for exchange names, you'd have MONument-1234 (three letters four digits) and no one would notice, and later you'd have MOnument 6-1234 (two letters five digits). Then when they switched to all-number calling, all of those subscribers suddenly found themselves with, e.g. 666-1234, and yes, there were number change requests a'plenty.

In the PBX platform we install, we have a fairly open numbering plan, so no one gets stuck with extension 666, unless they request it. In fact I had a request for it about 20 years ago.

In the Chinese language, the spoken word for certain digits have sounds that are very close to the sounds of other spoken words, for example "four" coincides with "death," and another one corresponds to "business goes smoothly," and another for "harmony and unity," and so on. (This is often mis-interpreted in the Western press as a preference for "lucky numbers", which is a fairly rough translation and almost trivialises it.) Thus, my clients who are Chinese or who do a lot of business in the Chinese community, often have preferences accordingly.

I have the complete list in my work notes, along with notes about entire sequences that spell out phrases; so I can bring up the issue and make relevant suggestions. This has been very good for client relations because clients don't have to explain something that might be awkward with someone who's not in the community.

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One thing that drives me nuts when dealing with spoken numbers, is the "teen/tee" hassle. For example "Five five five, fourteen-twenty," vs. "five five five, forty-twenty." The difference is the un-voiced consonant "-n-" sound, which is almost inaudible on the telephone except via inference from context.

The correct way to do it is to say each digit separately: "one four two zero," and "four zero two zero." You can use "-hundred" and "-thousand" because those are unambiguous, e.g. "five five five, two thousand."

The Bell System worked out this stuff for operators nearly a century ago and you'd think it would have become common sense by now.

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As far as I'm concerned, names and numbers are arbitrary except where needed to be consistent with a designed pattern, so people should be free to choose as they see fit, regardless of the reason. Even rightie-winger religious extremists who don't believe in science.