The nuts that called the White House when I was a phone operator... I started writing this as a comment in occhiblu’s “I just called Speaker Pelosi's office” post, but it just seemed like too big of a derail even for me.→[More:]

I was a phone operator for about half a year in the late 80s (for a tiny company that sprouted up after Bell was broken up) and every night I took at least a few collect calls to the White House. Even though we knew the outcome, company policy required us to go through the whole process. That meant I would take their info and the following conversation would then occur:

WHITE HOUSE OPERATOR: Hello, White House.

ME: I have a collect phone call for President Bush from Phil.

WHITE HOUSE OPERATOR: I'm sorry, the White House does not accept collect phone calls.

ME: Thank you, have a good evening.

ME (to Phil, or whatever the person that tried to make the call went by): I'm sorry sir, the White House does not accept collect calls.

PHIL: You f#2*ing c&#$ *#%$er. I'll kill you.

Surprisingly the conversations went almost exactly like that. On my screen I could see where the call originated, and almost all of the collect-call-to-the-White-House calls came from Mental Institutions (and occasionally a prison). There were a few guys that called so often that I actually knew their voices. And since I was in a room with at least 75 other operators, and I was getting the same guy once or twice a night, the law of averages says that he was calling ALL night - EVERY night. They ALWAYS gave their name, often only a first name, as if the President would know who the call was from and what it was about ("Is that Phil? I'll take the call, I want to pick his brain about Iran!"). And no matter who it was they would then swear at me, sometimes calmly, sometimes screaming, and usually end by threatening to kill me.

See, that had nothing to do with occhiblu’s "pro-feminist representative democracy" post, but the part about calling her office sparked that memory. And of course I'm not connecting the two. Honest.