I've called the white house before and was treated rudely by an operator there who then transferred my call to a number which rang and rang with no answer, no voice mail in which to leave my well-rehearsed message. Hmpf.

When we tried it Monday night, the operator was nice and polite and there was no transferring. This isn't the "regular" White House number, but one specifically set up for messages, so maybe that's the difference?

That should be the regular number - every kid who grows up in the DC burbs crank calls it at some point or another and I still remember it after all these years. Perhaps they've made some changes since I was fourteen...

Hm. Well, maybe I'm the last person in the US to know.

Oddly this came up in my house the other day and L. didn't know it. Trust me, it was a "this is a local call so you can be stupid for free" prank. Long distance when we were kids was big bucks, remember? Those wacky pre-cell-phone, pre-internet days... wow did I love my 1200 baud modem...

Oh the temptation...