Raising the level of discussion

To quote an article in today's Los Angeles Times, "[B]loggers, who typically have day jobs, turned into 'do-it-yourself journalists...seeking out sources and sometimes assembling these ideas for others,' noted a study on Sept. 11 and the Internet released last week by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Well, I had no idea I was supposed to be a do-it-yourself journalist. So I put what little journalistic training I have to work, checked my Rolodex full of sources, and managed to get a representative of the telephone company to agree to do an interview over the phone under the condition that she remain anonymous. The following is the complete transcript of the interview.

Me: Good evening. How are you tonight?
Woman: Good evening. At the tone, Pacific daylight time will be 7:56 and 10 seconds.
Me: How long have you been working for the phone company?
Woman: Good evening. At the tone, Pacific daylight time will be 7:56 and 20 seconds.
Me: Are you still recorded on tape, or are you now digitally recorded?
Woman: Good evening. At the tone, Pacific daylight time will be 7:56 and 30 seconds.
Me: Are you worried about your job being affected by the proliferation of devices...
Woman: Good evening. At the tone, Pacific daylight time will be 7:56 and 40 seconds.
Me: ...that automatically set their own time, either from the radio signal or from the Internet?
Woman: Good evening. At the tone, Pacific daylight time will be 7:56 and 50 seconds.
Me: Thank you for the interview. Say, what time is it?
Woman: Good evening. At the tone, Pacific daylight time will be 7:57 exactly.

Source: 853-1212

The paragraph that ruins the magic: I should point out that my alleged "Rolodex full of sources" is actually the San Fernando Valley white pages, where this number is under the listing for Pacific Bell. I can never remember it off the top of my head, because I keep conflating it in my mind with the old number to get the time in Tampa, which was 622-1212. (Therefore, whenever I try to think of the number to call to get the time in L.A., I always come up with 653-1212, which I know is wrong, so I have to grab the phone book and look it up.) In Tampa, we didn't get the "at the tone" bit, the time was rounded off to the nearest minute, and the time was usually several minutes off. Eventually, the phone company discontinued the service, because of deregulation, they claimed. So when I moved to L.A., I was a little surprised to discover that you can still call and get the time for free here. (It's a pay 976 number in most places, as far as I can tell.)