The 51st state

Our internet connection went down yesterday and continues down. So this morning I temporarily reactivated our dial-up earthlink account. Very slow! Anyway, I had an interesting adventure trying to get it reactivated. It reminded me of how taken for granted knowledge is so important. I was trying to get the local access numbers from someone who was obviously in India. I was explaining that while we live in GA we live near TN, and that the best access numbers for us would be in Chattanooga. He kept asking me whether certain cities would be local: Athens, Johnson City, etc., and I kept telling him that Chattanooga was the best place. He said he didn’t need the street, but the city. I said that Chattanooga was the city. I finally asked him if his list was in alphabetical order, and he said yes. I told him to look for the C’s and to read those to me. when he got to Chattanooga, I said “that’s the one!” So I got a couple of numbers but they didn’t work. So I called back. This time I got someone who had a good English accent so I felt better about my prospects of communicating clearly. But there were long silences, and when she asked me how to spell Chattanooga, I started having my doubts. I finally got two more numbers–ones that works. When she pronounced the work “three” however, I realized she was a foreigner asked where she was located, and she said “The Philippines.” Then I commented on how growing up in a certain area affects one’s ability to communicate. She said, “I can assure you that I’m quite familiar will all 51 states of the United States.” I said, “But there are only 50.” She said, quite confidently, “No, there are 51.” When I asked where the 51st state was located, she said, “Somewhere in the Virgin Islands.”