Over and Out

I dialed the number this morning, just to be sure — but it's true. The message we've been hearing for months — "Effective June 1, 2011, Verizon will no longer offer time of day and weather services" — is all I hear when I dial 936-1212. No more Neal Pizzano, Howard Phoebus or Rob Luchessi — voices we've come to know through years of hearing them say, "Here's the latest weather forecast. Brought to you by Verizon." A service that's been offered since rotary dial phones became popular in the 1930s is gone.

People don't need dial-in forecasts when they have the Weather Channel, weather.com and scores of other ways to plan their day. But we aren't big TV people, and it's easier to pick up the phone than to fire up the computer. Besides, you learned more than just the weather. Pizzano, who was profiled in the Washington Post a couple years ago, might tell you that it's National Peach Cobbler Day or Hug Your Sister Day. And he always remembered to say "have a nice day."

So today we mourn the replacement of the little with the large, of the personal with the anonymous. Today we miss the friendly voice on the other end of the line. Today we're going to boycott the weather.

Photo from Past Times.