From: nagle@netcom.com (John Nagle)
Subject: Re: Presidents and Telephones
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest)
Date: Sun, 9 May 1993 03:51:46 GMT

scott@dsg.tandem.com (Scott Hazen Mueller) writes:

> "When Dwight Eisenhower returned to Kansas on January 20th, 1961, he
> had not placed a phone call in his 20 years as general and President.
> Unaware that a dialing system had replaced local operators, he had no
> idea what to do when he heard the humming of the dial tone."

       Sounds like Bush and the checkout scanner.  Those guys don't
get out much.

       Lyndon Johnson has been credited with demanding the invention
of "executive override", so he could break in on calls in progress.
Johnson had two giant Call Directors on his desk, with individual
buttons for everyone in government he called frequently.  (His phones
can be seen at the Johnson Library at Austin).  And he didn't want to
get busy signals.


John Nagle