On the dial

I HEAR there is a big fuss going on in New York about Manhattan telephone area code numbers. There are now too many phone subscribers to continue using the familiar 212 prefix, and various schemes have been hatched to accommodate a burgeoning Big Apple. At the time of writing, the favourite was a plan to give everybody south of 23rd Street a new area code. This seems uncontroversial unless - like most of the big maritime law firms in Manhattan - you live south of 23rd.

There is some kudos attached to the 212 area code. It seems that, in the days when area codes were first given out, it was prestigious to have one with low numbers. All the phones had rotary dials so, the lower the number, the quicker it was to dial. Hence, Manhattan was very much out of the top box. (The US must presumably have some influence overseas, too, with an international code of 1). So don’t expect the south of the island to sit idly by while it is reprogrammed to a 646 area code. There should - and might yet - be a law against it.