We're on the 10th floor, but call ahead, 212-209-2800 or 212-209-2801.
So come down to the station, we've got books and CDs, DVDs, audio tapes, video tapes, comic
books, a lot to choose from, some very special one-of-a-kind treasures.
Call ahead, though, 212-209-2800, 212-209-2801.
That's Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. till 7 p.m.
Which means you missed it for tonight.
It's 7 o'clock.
Book fair is closed.
Come tomorrow.
You're listening to WBAI New York.
Time for Off the Hook.
The telephone keeps ringing, so I ripped it off the wall.
I cut myself while shaving, now I can't make a call.
We couldn't get much worse, but if they could, they would.
Von Diddley Bonk for the best, expect the worst.
I hope that's understood.
Von Diddley Bonk!
Von Diddley Bonk!
And good evening to everybody.
The program is Off the Hook.
Manuel Goldstein here with you.
This Wednesday evening, the 10th day of December, 2008.
Joined tonight by not Kevin.
Hello.
Red Hat.
Hey.
Rob T. Firefly.
Good evening.
Jim.
Hello.
And Rhett.
Hello.
Mike.
Hi.
Down in Philadelphia, Bernie S.
Greetings from Philadelphia.
And we have all sorts of interesting things to talk about tonight.
But we also have some interesting news.
This is one of two shows with our emergency fundraiser.
Yes, that's right.
We're back yet again appealing for funds because we fell short last time.
Our show didn't fall short, but the station as a whole pretty much fell short.
Plus the economy is falling into an abyss that no one's ever been to before.
So, yes, we're back.
And, unfortunately, that's part of what we have to do is stay on the air.
So let me give the phone number out right now, 212-209-2950.
That is our pledge line.
And let's just say every pledge 30 and above gets an Off the Hook T-shirt, as always.
Every pledge of $25 is a basic membership to WBAI.
We also have some hope packages, some last hope packages,
commemorative hope packages, we're calling them,
10 DVDs of various topics for a pledge of $75.
But you also get a hope T-shirt and a hope badge for a pledge of $75.
For $125, you get 200.
I mean, 200.
Oh, my God, 20.
We made a lot of them last time.
We're still making them, in fact.
You'll get 20 talks, 20 DVDs of the talks for a pledge of $125.
And you'll also get a hope T-shirt and a hope badge, 212-209-2950.
This is one of the neat badges with the circuit board on it, right?
You know, I figured you might ask that.
I don't know.
I don't think it is.
I thought we gave those away.
No, I don't think it works, but it's got the circuit.
Oh, okay.
Well, yeah, obviously.
They're the ones.
Yeah, they're those ones.
They're neat.
They don't have the actual RFID thing.
But you can solder something onto it.
Yeah, you can do whatever you want.
But, yeah, we do have those.
Those aren't available in any other form.
So, 212-209-2950 to get those.
We'll be talking about some of our memories of hope maybe a little bit later on.
But we do want to get to some news items as well.
And we have a bunch of things to talk about.
Where shall we start?
There's all kinds of things.
Well, okay.
How about the case of Kara Spencer?
Have you heard about this?
She's at Michigan State University.
She sent a 391 professors' email in September,
and that landed her in a disciplinary hearing in front of MSU's student faculty judiciary last week,
Michigan State University.
Now, she had allegedly violated university regulations on the use of its computer network.
Those regulations prohibit individuals from sending unsolicited bulk emails for personal reasons
and set the bar for bulk email at 20 to 30 recipients over two days.
Now, what was it she was sending email about?
She was concerned about plans to shorten MSU's welcome week by two days starting next year
and to cut two teaching days out of the fall semester in the process.
She was concerned that the community hadn't been given enough time to respond to the university's plan.
She encouraged the professors to speak up.
The proposed changes were going to have a significant effect on faculty and students, she said.
I can't imagine how that could be prohibited by the university.
But guess what?
It was.
And she was hauled off in front of a disciplinary board,
and she could face all kinds of nasty things.
I believe suspension is one of them.
And who knows what else?
It's pretty unbelievable, isn't it?
Just sending email like that?
But then again, it is unsolicited email.
So is this justified or not right?
Well, they said unsolicited for personal reasons.
This was supposed to be more official.
Well, it was her personal concerns, I suppose.
But about actions in the school.
Sorry?
Not right?
No, but about what they were doing in the school, about shortening days and cutting for school.
That's still not an official communication, though.
That's still her personal views.
So you think it's justified?
I didn't say I think it's justified.
I'm just saying that I think it falls under personal communication.
I have a question.
She did this once or she did it many times?
I think she did it once.
I mean, then it seems a little excessive.
I mean, it seems like if she did it once, they told her to stop, and she kept doing it,
then maybe they'd have a case.
But if she did it once, they should tell her to stop, and maybe she won't do it again.
Well, you know, she's fighting this.
I think she believes that she didn't do anything wrong.
MSU also has rules against stuffing flyers or junk mail into student mailboxes.
You can't stuff flyers into mailboxes.
We used to do that all the time.
At my school, we did that.
But what's interesting about it, though, is it's always this case where some institution overreacts,
and then everybody hears about it.
So, you know, if she had just sent this email, only the professor would have heard about it,
and they may or may not have acted upon it.
But now suddenly she has national publicity because they overreacted.
So I think from an institutional standpoint, this is kind of a stupid thing to do.
But we see this over and over and over again all the time.
You know, some university or company overreacts, and then everybody knows about it
when they could have just kept their mouth shut.
That's the thing.
The university has gotten so much publicity now because of this story,
which is making its way all around the internet now, and she's gotten all the support.
So, yeah, you've got to wonder, was it a wise thing to really push this?
But, I mean, again, it was...
Hey, Michael.
Yeah, sorry.
I was just going to say, this did not sound unusual that this would have happened
because she was expressing an opinion contrary to the institution's plans and wishes.
The university was saying they want to change the semester program.
I forget the details.
But they were basically changing how the semester period was going or something,
and the period of time.
And she was expressing a view contrary to what their intentions were.
And I'm sure if she was expressing her views in favor of that,
I doubt they would have charged her with this violation.
I can't tell you the amount of e-mail I get from my former university that's unsolicited.
And years after I've parted ways, they still send at least one piece of e-mail a week,
maybe a lot more than that, asking for money, telling me about their stupid sports games,
all kinds of things going on.
And how do I stop them?
Can I fine them?
Can I make them pay somehow?
Never seems to work for the individual.
Okay, well, moving on, I guess we should focus some attention on the events over in Mumbai
where Indian authorities have announced the arrest of two men suspected of providing cell phone cards
to the gunmen involved in last month's Mumbai attack.
Police have accused the men of supplying the attackers with SIM cards,
which store information and allow a user to connect their phone to a wireless network.
Most large Indian cities have a thriving black market in cell phones and SIM cards.
Now, it's not really clear.
They say some of these cards were used by gunmen in Mumbai during the assault.
It's not clear if the people being charged here are simply being charged with illegally selling a SIM card
or with somehow helping to plan out the terrorist attacks.
It's unclear.
I think it would be interesting if they're unrelated,
like they're not involved directly and they're being charged,
because that would be kind of saying the pilot school that taught the 9-11 pilots to fly planes
would be therefore responsible for the attack.
Right, exactly.
I guess it doesn't have details in the article.
No, that's the thing.
I've been looking for this.
We're looking for details saying that they're connected somehow and it's just not there.
There are no details.
Rob?
Yeah, it's strange.
If they catch somebody performing fraud or something illegal and using a telephone in this country,
they normally don't charge Verizon or Sprint or whoever with assisting and aiding and abetting them.
Usually they don't.
I've noticed that.
It seems like the issue might likely be that the massive scale that this was on
that they want to actually appear as if they're doing something
and going after people whether they are really at fault or not.
Yeah, so it's all about image,
and making it seem like they're pursuing something when they're not.
That's usually what security is about.
Oh, yeah.
We're well familiar with that.
Bernie, go ahead.
It sounds like what in the U.S. would be charged as a material support of terrorism
or maybe it's giving money to some charitable organization like the Holy Land Foundation
where a bunch of people were just convicted of committing felony terrorism
for giving money to an organization and their intention might have been to fund schools
and that sort of thing.
But in this case, the people selling SIM cards probably were not themselves in favor of terrorism happening in Mumbai,
but they get roped up in it.
I doubt India has even as many protections as we have in this country,
and ours are fading rapidly.
You're saying that by engaging in this black market selling of SIM cards,
they were somehow helping these people commit crimes and try to remain anonymous,
I guess in much the same way that the drug trade in this country is accused of helping terrorists
by funneling money in their direction.
Now, is the black market selling of SIM cards in India, is that only for criminal purposes
or is it just that cell phones are inaccessible to poor people?
I think there's many reasons beyond criminal reasons.
Some people like to save money and remain anonymous for other reasons.
I mean the thing is with this vague article that we read, and I forget the source of the article,
it's just unclear.
Maybe these people were in fact involved with the planning of the attacks
and providing SIM cards means they were like,
here's the SIM card you got to use to blow up the building,
however you blow up a building with a SIM card anyway.
But the article as written does not say that.
It's just very strange.
It seems like it would make more sense, it would be more secure if you're going to blow up a building
to buy a SIM card from somebody who doesn't know you're going to blow up the building
because that's one less link in the chain that could go bad on you.
Well, even if they were not consciously contributing to a terrorist act,
the simple fact of the matter is this is supposed to be black market selling,
so it's still a crime either way, isn't it?
Well, yeah, but not that kind of a crime.
But it's still something that can be prosecuted.
Yeah, but it's being publicized as the fact that they stole or sold them to the terrorists.
So if it was just they were being prosecuted for…
What if they gave them to the terrorists? Would that be better?
But if they were just being prosecuted for the fact that they were dealing stuff on the black market,
I don't think it would have the same kind of article write-up.
Well, okay. And then we also have this attached to the story, which is kind of interesting.
You guys are aware of this.
We heard about the Sarah Palin incident of a few weeks ago.
But apparently in this particular case, according to the Daily Times…
Yes, Mike.
Which Sarah Palin incident?
You know, the phone call that she got from the French president or prime minister or something that she believed,
which actually was from a radio show in Canada.
Well, something similar, not nearly as funny, happened in Pakistan.
According to the Daily Times, Karachi's Dawn reported Saturday…
I'm not sure what Dawn is over there. It must be some kind of media entity.
They reported Saturday that a hoax call was received by President Asif Ali Zardari
with the caller pretending to be India's foreign minister, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee.
The caller directly threatened to take military action
if Islamabad failed to immediately act against the supposed perpetrators of the Mumbai killings.
That this kind of hoax is possible is most shocking indeed.
It could have unleashed a war of mutual annihilation without the two countries intending it.
This is from an editorial that ran in the Daily Times.
The report has pinpointed the blunder in Islamabad.
Because of the heightened tension over the Mumbai carnage,
some senior members of the presidential staff decided to bypass the standard procedures meant for such occasions,
including verification of the caller and involvement of the diplomatic missions
and transferred the late evening call to Mr. Zardari.
The concerned circles began preparing for war.
Prime Minister Gilani was asked to return from Lahore immediately
and the PAF chief's plane was sent to New Delhi to bring back Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi.
Clearly, someone wanted to unleash an Indo-Pak standoff
and thus take the heat off the tribal areas had pulled off an almost successful trick.
Now, there was also an article in the Daily Mail News
that basically says that this threatening call was not a hoax.
Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Sherry Remen said it is impossible
that a fake call is delivered to the President of Pakistan
and no one can call the President of Pakistan directly.
She said that the number from which the call was received on November 28th
was confirmed number of Indian Foreign Ministry,
adding all the phone calls at the President's house are first verified and then transferred to President.
I know they're leaving out words here, but I'm reading it as it is.
Sherry Remen condemned India for wrongly exploiting media against Pakistan
and denied any report regarding fake phone call.
She said this propaganda war is being waged at a time when tension between Pakistan and India was high.
A man pretending to be India's Foreign Minister called Pakistan's President
and talked in a threatening manner during the Mumbai terror attacks
prompting Pakistan to put its Air Force in higher alert,
a security official and a news report said Saturday.
So, I guess there's different takes on this whole story.
Bernie, go ahead.
Perhaps there was some caller ID spoofing going on.
Yeah, I'm not sure they use exactly the same technology over there,
but it sounds like somebody certainly pulled the wool over someone else's eyes. Rob?
Of course, this would look better for the recipients of the call if they said,
no, it wasn't a prank, it was totally legit,
and played it off like they could not possibly be pranked or lied to or tricked in any way.
But all I know is I suddenly feel a lot better about all the prank calls I've made in my life.
Yeah, but you weren't trying to start a nuclear war, were you?
No, not particularly.
It's kind of serious.
I'd be curious to find out exactly what it was that they figured out.
When they figured out that it wasn't a hoax, you know,
Pakistan's calling India, okay, we're going to bomb you now.
India's like, what's going on?
Oh, you guys.
Yes, I'm sure it was something, all smiles all around.
That's how it works over there.
Okay, we have some mail to get through.
We had some good reaction to last week's feature on .gov of the week.
I love the new .gov of the week site feature.
I can't wait to see which other strange .gov sites you discuss on the show.
Of course, that led me to poking around, to start poking around,
looking for some weird .gov sites to pass along.
Here are a couple that stood out for me, either for being goofy or for being interesting.
This is from Nikki in Chicago.
Nikki, guess what?
We decided to pick one of your entries to be this week's .gov of the week.
Yes, every week we reach out to the Internet and explore a .gov site,
that's the .gov top level domain,
and look for something unusual, different,
not the kind of thing you would expect in a strict governmental domain.
And this week we venture over to a site known as thecoolspot.gov.
I'm connected to it right now, actually.
And they have, let me click over here.
Hang on.
I'm sorry, I connected to the wrong thing.
Already I messed it up, I'm sorry.
It's called thecoolspot.gov.
Here we are.
That's the most annoying sound I could possibly imagine.
Basically, as you move the mouse around, you'll hear all kinds of crazy noises.
It really gets you out of your head in no short order.
This site, those are the kinds of noises that you get.
Boy, I've got to turn that down.
It's the young teen's place for info on alcohol and resisting peer pressure.
There are all kinds of things you can learn from this site.
Let's start by taking a little quiz here.
I'm going to test the people in the studio.
How much drinking is going on is the subject of one particular section here.
Many kids in middle school, and older people for that matter,
don't have the real story.
Take this quiz based on a new national survey for a reality check about drinking in the United States.
It might surprise you.
Reality check, how much drinking is going on?
A lot.
I haven't asked the question yet.
Many kids in middle school, and older people for that matter, don't have the real story.
Take this quiz based on, oh wait, I just read that.
They printed it twice.
Question number one.
Each question has three choices.
How many 13-year-olds drank in the past month on average?
Most, 9 out of 10.
Half, 5 out of 10.
Very few, less than 1 out of 10.
Raise your hands, whoever has an answer.
Yes, Rob.
Isn't that too young to drink?
I would think not.
The point is, you're not supposed to be doing it below 21.
In fact, I don't think they want you to do it over 21 either.
What do you think the answer is?
Remember, this site is designed to keep little kids in middle school and high school kids from drinking.
I can use a reality check.
What were the choices again?
The choices are, how many 13-year-olds drank in the past month?
9 out of 10, 5 out of 10, 1 out of 10.
Or less than 1 out of 10, actually.
I'll say 5 out of 10.
5 out of 10.
Anyone else want to give a guess?
That would be my guess.
I'm going to go with 9 out of 10.
9 out of 10.
No one else?
Okay.
You already guessed.
Do you want to guess again?
Oh, yeah.
I thought you did.
Bernie, do you have a guess?
I'll guess 5 out of 10 as well.
All right.
Well, you're all wrong.
The actual answer is very few, less than 1 out of 10.
Only about 7 in 100 13-year-olds drank in the past month.
Most, 93 out of 100, did not.
Yeah.
We're clearly pessimistic.
Be like everyone else.
We're clearly pessimistic.
Oh, no.
You're nonconformist.
That's what you are.
Right.
Okay.
Question number two.
Among kids age 12 to 17, how many drank in the past month?
Some of you aren't that far away from that age, so you would know better than anybody.
On average, most, 8 out of 10, half, 5 out of 10, a few, less than 2 out of 10.
.Ret.
Most.
Most.
You say 8 out of 10.
Well, it covers the entire range, 12 to 17.
12 to 17.
Yeah.
I'd say 5 out of 10.
5 out of 10 too.
You say 5 out of 10?
I'd say 5 out of 10.
I'm going to go with most again.
Most.
Bernie, how about you?
5 out of 10 again.
But where are they getting your statistics?
I question them.
It's a .gov site.
We don't question that.
It's an authoritarian site.
We're not going to question a .gov site.
Where would we possibly stand if we did that?
And the answer, again, you're all wrong, a few, less than 2 out of 10.
So this is trying to show that.
It's trying to show that the cool thing to do is not to drink because most people don't drink.
But that would make the people who are drinking cool because they're the only ones who do it.
Well, I'm going to get to the cool factor in a second.
I'm going to get to the cool factor.
All right.
Question number three, and this is the last question.
How many adults age 35 and older drank in the past month?
Most parents of middle schoolers are this old.
On average, most, 8 out of 10, about half, 5 out of 10, or a few, 2 out of 10.
Who wants to guess?
I missed the question.
You missed the question.
How many adults age 35 and older drank in the past month?
8 out of 10, 5 out of 10, 2 out of 10.
Not Kevin.
Most.
Most, 8 out of 10.
Oh, wait a minute, 35 and older.
35 and older.
They're skipping that range in the middle.
They're talking about their parents now.
Right.
Bernie.
8 out of 10.
It's not supposed to be that difficult.
We have two people for 8 out of 10.
Rob.
If I was one of those middle school kids, I'd say they have it pretty rough.
I'd say 8 out of 10.
8 out of 10.
10 out of 10.
I'm going to go with least because I think that all of the answers are nobody.
Okay.
Once again, you're all wrong.
The correct answer is 5 out of 10.
52% of adults age 35 and up drank in the past month, so nearly half drank less recently
or not at all.
If you choose not to drink, you're not alone.
That's their slogan now.
Okay.
Now, you have the right to resist.
Wait, wait.
Yes.
The government is telling me that I have the right to resist.
They are telling you.
This is much bigger news than anything else on this site.
They're telling little children this.
They're telling children this.
They're telling children they even want children to know they have the right to resist the
government?
They certainly do.
They absolutely do.
This is much more fascinating than your statistics about drinking.
Well, I'm trying to build it up here.
Yes.
Basically, spoken pressure, when someone pressures you with words, can be difficult
to resist.
We do it all the time.
Call 212-209-2950.
Go.
Pledge your money to WBAI.
And help us resist.
There's one call.
The financial pressure is upon us.
Yes.
There's one call on the line.
See, it does work.
To tie it together.
Yes.
Well, we want to get more people.
We want more spoken pressure.
Please.
212-209-2950.
Most people don't want to risk making others feel bad, but it's important to stand up for
yourself.
Check out these strategies for dealing with spoken pressure.
Do.
These are dos.
Do say no assertively.
And they underline assertively and they bolded it too.
Do stay alcohol free.
Do suggest something else to do.
Do stand up for others.
Do walk away from the situation.
And do find something else to do with other friends.
But the cool kids are doing it.
Okay.
Here are some don'ts.
And these don'ts are for you, Redhack.
Don't attend the party unprepared to resist alcohol.
There's a lot of negatives there.
Don't attend the party unprepared to resist alcohol.
So they're saying stay at home?
Isn't there another way to say that?
If you do attend the party prepared to resist alcohol.
Yeah.
I think that's a better way to say it.
Regardless.
Don't be afraid to say no.
Don't mumble.
I don't know why they say don't mumble.
Because that way you can't get talked over and convinced because you were mumbling.
Yeah.
But you're not going to be drinking if you mumble.
I don't understand that.
All right.
Don't say no too aggressively.
Yeah.
You don't want to upset them.
You got to calm down a little bit.
And finally, don't act like a know-it-all when saying no.
Okay.
So these are all hints from our government on ways kids can say no to alcohol.
Now, we also have a section here.
Okay.
We have the right to resist.
Know your no's.
Are we really going to go through this entire site?
No.
Believe me.
This whole site is huge.
Because I really miss those noises.
You miss the noises?
You want the noises back?
I'm going to bring it up.
Yeah.
They sound really cool.
Yeah.
It's pretty annoying.
All right.
Let me go to meet your expectations.
Do you think, and this is actually a quiz I have not even taken myself.
Do you think drinking a sport...
Sorry.
I moved the mouse.
Do you think drinking a sports drink will make you a better athlete?
What about if you wear the coolest new hair gel?
Will everyone stop and check you out?
These are examples of expectations.
What we think will happen.
We get expectations about lots of things from lots of sources including friends, family,
celebrities, and advertising.
Everyone has expectations when they think about trying something new.
But will those things really happen?
Sometimes expectations are right on.
Right on.
Get it?
They're cool.
But often they are totally off.
Especially when you're talking about alcohol.
Check out the activity below.
Okay.
We're going to click to play now.
And then we get little questions in a bar here.
Google bar.
What's new in your toolbar?
Why am I getting that?
Okay.
Sometimes expectations are right on.
Okay.
The same thing again.
Sorry.
Okay.
What did you expect?
They're asking what did you expect.
I guess with regards to drinking or something.
To have more fun and excitement.
To fit in better.
To impress others.
To feel good or improve your mood.
To be more attractive.
To relax or feel less shy or nervous.
To be funny.
Or to solve your problems or forget about them.
To be more attractive.
Usually it works the other way that the other people are more attractive.
Yeah.
We got to pick one of those.
I'm going to say to feel good or improve my mood.
Some people think drinking will make them feel good or improve their mood.
I'm clicking continue now.
But if they're feeling down, drinking can make it worse.
Way worse.
If people want to feel better, they need to talk about their problems with someone they trust.
And if they're depressed, they shouldn't wait.
It also helps to exercise and do things they know they will enjoy.
Tell us what puts you in a better mood without using alcohol or other drugs.
And then you can send them mail without naming names or anything like that.
I want to see the one about being more attractive because I think that's...
I don't know how to go back on this little box here.
I don't want to spend the whole night on this.
But I do want to go to one other part.
The know your nose.
If I can figure out how to get back on this.
God, I hate that so much.
They're talking about like the thing between my eyes?
No.
Know your nose.
If you want to resist, you'll need to stay in control of the situation.
And, of course, stay alcohol free or free of whatever the pressure may be.
There are several ways to say no.
But one is more effective than the others.
Click below to find out which one.
Okay.
So we have to figure out which no.
You can say no lots of different ways.
But one is more effective.
Which one?
Not aggressively.
Hey, do you want to come drink with us after school?
That's the question being put forward now.
Yes.
Okay.
But you have to say no.
That's the thing.
You're not getting into the spirit of the game here.
You have to say no.
And you have to pick the most effective way.
We're going to vote on what the most effective way to say no is.
Yes.
I have the right to resist, though.
You can't resist this.
All right.
You're not going to resist this.
Can we repurpose this website maybe and learn how to say no to military recruiters or something?
Like that's really a problem.
I'm sure we can make our own website.
But I don't know if we can make these noises.
Okay.
So here's how do you say no.
Pick one.
No way, stupid.
You guys are losers.
All right.
I kind of like that myself.
And this one I can barely read because it's in very tiny print.
I'm sorry I have a thing.
I guess that's mumbling.
That's mumbling.
You don't want to do that.
All right.
We're going to pick two.
I think that's the one they want us to pick.
Probably.
No, and you shouldn't either.
It's really bad for you.
Oh, that's the no at all.
And finally, oh my gosh, did you see what that guy was wearing?
I like that one.
I'm picking that one.
All right.
We're going to click on that one.
This is an avoiding answer.
It is not the most effective way to say no.
Well, what's the guy wearing?
I don't know.
It's not a name to pick from.
It really could change the conversation.
What if it's a purple tracksuit or something?
Oh, wow.
Purple tracksuit.
Avoiding means changing the subject, staying away from the issue, or trying to distract
the person.
Now, I guess we'll get one more guess on this, and then we'll move on.
Any other guess?
No way, stupid.
You guys are losers?
Okay.
This is an aggressive answer.
It is not the most effective way to say no.
Being aggressive means pushing people around, threatening or blaming them, putting them
down, acting angry.
If you use that enough, then the people in question probably won't want to drink with
you anymore.
Yeah, that's probably true.
They probably won't want to do anything with you.
Then the last section we're going to focus on here is pick your nose, and that's really
what they call it.
N-O apostrophe S. They say, yes, we know that sounds gross, but it got your attention, right?
Seriously, if you're feeling pressure to drink, you'll want to pick a way to say no that works
well.
As you learn to know your nose, one way of saying no works better than the others.
Click below to find the no that stops the pressure, and check out the others, too, so
you know the no's to avoid.
This is really getting silly.
Okay.
Hey, I'm having a sleepover Friday.
My parents won't be home, and we're going to drink.
You're coming, right?
Well.
Yes.
Basically, there are five here, number one, two, three, four, and five.
We just have to pick a number.
Pick a number.
Three.
Three.
Okay.
Forty-two.
No, picking three.
No, that stuff can make you sick.
Says who?
Don't worry about it.
Are you coming?
That's the response.
There's a whole dialogue going on here.
You didn't stop the pressure.
That was a know-it-all answer.
You see?
That didn't work.
Wait.
Does it actually show the answers, or is it just one through five?
No, it just gives the numbers.
You have to guess.
How are you supposed to guess?
I don't know how you're supposed to guess.
Okay.
Let's pick number one this time.
Number one, the answer is, um, no, I don't think I can.
I, um, ah, you know.
That's mumbling.
Yeah, that's mumbling.
I don't want to do that.
I know you can.
Come on.
It won't be the same if you don't come.
You didn't stop the pressure.
That was a passive answer.
Yeah.
Being passive means saying no weakly, mumbling, making lame excuses, acting like a wimp.
What's wrong with acting like a wimp and making that sound like something you shouldn't be
able to do?
Okay.
And then we have Dear Ashley.
They don't ever say who Ashley is.
She writes the advice column, but that's pretty much all we know.
And basically people write in and say all kinds of things to her and ask all kinds of
advice.
Dear Ashley, my best friend just moved away.
Now I pretty much watch TV every day after school and on the weekends.
There are a lot of ads for alcohol, and I always see people partying with drinks and
having a good time.
If they're having such a good time and I'm lonely at home, should I go out and join the
drinkers?
Thanks.
Signed, TV Boy.
Yes.
Hi, TV Boy.
Alcohol and TV shows may make you think that all the beautiful people with lots of friends
drink and that drinking will turn you into one of them.
The truth is not everyone drinks and a lot of bad things can happen with alcohol.
Don't let the TV fool you.
Get off the couch and join a club or group at school and make some new friends.
And finally, I moved to a new neighborhood with my family and don't know any of the kids,
so I don't really have anyone to hang out with.
There is a group of kids my age that sit in the park and drink.
They seem like they're cool.
I'm tired of being bored.
Should I start hanging out with them even though they are into drinking?
Signed, sick of hanging out with myself.
Dear sick of hanging out with myself, if you decide to join that crowd, you will face pressure
to drink.
There are too many risks with drinking alcohol.
Remind yourself that most kids your age don't drink.
Remember?
We talked about that earlier on.
Be careful about what you choose as friends.
A good way to make new friends is to join a group or a club at school or near your new
neighborhood.
Find some friends who enjoy things you like and who don't drink.
Remember, sex is a wonderful alternative to drinking.
I don't think I said that.
I was just wondering.
I added that in.
No, they don't say that.
That's true.
Okay, that's pretty much our look at the .gov site of the week, which is thecoolspot.gov.
Go visit it on your own and write to us, oth at 2600.com, and suggest your .gov of the week.
Thank you.
That went on way too long.
Yeah.
You really got to focus less on these .gov sites, but it was an interesting site, and
it goes to show that .gov is filled with more things than just the White House and House
of Representatives and boring things like that.
Yes.
Yeah.
So, again, write to us, oth at 2600.com, with your suggestions.
All right, back to business.
We do have some important things that we have to take care of tonight.
I don't know if we've gotten any calls.
I see we're up to $250.
That's what it looks like.
Our TV screen is still scrambled.
They didn't fix it from the last marathon.
It's like we're watching HBO without subscribing to it.
Well, that's why we need donations.
Well, yeah, but you know what?
I think someone just with a screwdriver can fix this.
Maybe we should do it after the show.
Yeah, 212-209-2950.
What are we offering?
We're offering two distinct packages of Hope videos, Hope DVDs, that if you didn't come
to the Hope conference, the last Hope took place in July of this year, and we had a huge
amount of talks.
We had over 100 talks, and we recorded all of them.
We recorded all the talks, and they're available.
They've been available for a little while now.
What we're doing tonight, we have a special promotion that's actually a really good deal
where we take the top 10 or the 10 most popular ones and offer those to you for a pledge of
$75.
That's 10 DVDs.
We also throw in a Last Hope T-shirt and a Last Hope badge.
It's the commemorative package, $75.
You'll get Steven Levy's keynote speech.
You'll get Adam Savage's talk, Kevin Mitnick, Steve Rombaum, Jello Biafra.
You'll get the social engineering talk.
You'll get Laszlo talking about Grand Theft Auto and the fun of commercial radio and things
like that.
You'll get Mitch Altman's talk on hacking cool things with microcontrollers, the panel
on hacking democracy, an in-depth analysis of the ES&S voting systems, and the talk involving
Mark Hosler and Negative Land and various other people, the intersection of culture
jamming, hacking, and hacktivism.
You'll get all of that by calling 212-209-2950.
Well, you have to call.
You also have to pledge your support.
Oh, yeah.
You don't just call.
That's a good point.
By pledging $75, we take Visa, MasterCard, American Express, all that.
You'll get that sent to you, all of that, those 10 DVDs and the T-shirt and the badge.
And the radio station.
And the radio station.
You are always forgetting the most important things.
Well, and I also forgot the off-the-hook T-shirt, which you get for every pledge $30 and above.
So, yeah, throw that in as well.
212-209-2950.
You see, it's a great deal.
Now, I know that we were just on the air a couple of months ago going through this, although
this is new.
We didn't offer the T-shirt and the badge before.
But the fact of the matter is, this is necessary to keep the radio station going.
And I know that there are a lot of people who did not pledge last time who are listening
now.
There are people who haven't listened in the past that are just tuning in for the first
time.
And if you want to hear a radio show like this continue and hear a radio station, are
you going to do this every fundraiser, not, Kevin, you're going to put money on the table?
Does that money ever actually go anywhere?
Do you just put it on the table and then put it back in your pocket?
It goes right back to the tally room.
OK.
What, you took it from the tally room?
No, no.
I gave it to the tally room.
Oh.
OK.
But, yes, people are constantly tuning into this radio station.
That's what people do with radio.
They're tuning.
They find things.
And they find us sometimes.
And they say, how could such a show exist?
How is this possible?
What planet am I on?
And the reason it's possible, the reason it exists, the reason it's happening right before
your ears is because listeners like you have contributed to this radio station since the
year 1960 and kept it going and kept folks like us with a place to go one night a week
where we can talk about various issues and spread some information, spread some knowledge,
talk about news stories that nobody else is talking about.
But it all relies on listeners calling in.
We don't have commercials.
We don't have underwriters.
We don't have corporate sponsorship or any of that.
We have listeners.
And the best way to prove we have listeners is having our listeners call us occasionally
and lend the support that keeps this place going.
212-209-2950.
Hard to focus in exactly on how many calls we have.
But to me, it looks like zero.
Is that right?
Those lights are to be believed.
It looks like.
None of them are on.
So I think that means we have zero calls.
Do people not understand that the phone number to call is 212-209-2950?
They might not understand that.
But maybe also the 10-DVD deal is good but not good enough.
And if that's the case, okay, you're right.
We do have a better one.
You can get 20 DVDs for $125.
Now, in addition to the 10 DVDs I just named.
So you get all those.
All those.
You'll get the T-shirt.
You'll get the badge.
You'll get the off-the-hook T-shirt in addition.
But you'll also get, in addition to the 10 DVDs, 10 more.
You'll get the talk on Wikiscanner.
You'll get the talk on New York City taxis.
The history of phone freaking.
The anonymous panel.
The panel on bag cams.
You'll get the talk on lockpicking.
Actually, a few talks on lockpicking.
And escaping handcuffs and all kinds of cool things like that.
All coming your way for a pledge of $125.
That plus the other 10 DVDs.
20 DVDs.
212-209-2950.
You won't get a better deal than that.
That's for sure.
Yes, Rob.
Just to remind everybody that off-the-hook T-shirt you get is exclusive to these fundraisers.
You cannot get them without supporting the station and the show.
And I don't believe the Hope badges are available anywhere else.
No, they're not.
They're not.
This is the only place that we're offering them.
You won't get one unless you travel back in time to last summer or you support us now.
And if you do travel back in time, that's really not fair.
Because you're avoiding helping out the radio station.
And you're getting to hear the same program twice.
And that's not right either.
So please give a call.
Still no calls in the line.
I know that we're kind of fatigued with all the fundraising we've had to do.
And we're all feeling the effects of the economy.
And it's the holiday season.
So we're all in a bad mood.
But if this place goes away, think of how things will be then.
I mean that is really the premium that you cannot get anywhere else.
Like something could happen.
You could borrow an off-the-hook T-shirt from a friend.
Whatever.
You could get one maybe.
But you cannot get this radio program anywhere except from this radio program.
And if the pledges don't come in and this radio station shuts down,
that will be the end of us.
You'll be hearing country music on this frequency.
Can you imagine?
What else don't we have in this city that they could say?
Well, let's do more top 40.
We can do that.
We can duplicate.
Oh, Voltaire, you're here.
Welcome.
Mass transit hit you again, huh?
Yes, Metro North.
Metro North, good.
You have something to say about why people should call?
I can say that.
You have to use microphones.
We could always become a religious station if we don't get that.
Religion.
Oh, yeah.
We need more religion.
A religious station on 99.5.
What do you think about that?
Now someone else just called.
Oh.
All right.
We have three calls on the line.
Here's the thing.
I'm not trying to scare people,
but that is reality because a station like this can't exist without funds.
It's simple.
And regardless,
if we're not offering anything other than the existence of the radio station,
those phone lines should be lit up.
We have 24, 24 lines, well, 24 little indicators for lights.
I don't know if we have 24 phone lines.
If this place really means something,
they should be ringing constantly.
212-209-2950.
Yes, Bernie, are you pulsing something?
Pulsing?
I hear a pulsing noise.
We hear a pulsing.
Yeah.
My heart is pulsing, I would hope.
Well, it's coming through on the phone line.
I don't know what that is.
Let me move the phone away from the computer.
How about that?
That's a good idea, yes.
Never have a phone next to a computer.
Bad things result.
Although it's not a DSM.
DSM phones seem to cause more interference.
I have a feeling you had something more on topic to say.
I did.
I did.
Obviously, listeners of this show know this is a unique station,
but many of our listeners may have been listening to the news media lately
and learning that a lot of media outlets, like the Tribune Company
and even a lot of public radio stations, public television stations,
are doing massive cutbacks right now.
And those stations get huge amounts of advertising dollars
and underwriting dollars, none of which WBAI gets.
So the media landscape is rapidly changing,
and radio stations like this are really struggling on a shoestring
to keep this kind of programming on the air so our listeners get information
they can't get anywhere else.
Now, if you still think these fundraisers are annoying,
and they are slightly annoying,
but they're not nearly as annoying as the advertising
and the underwriting ads you'd hear on commercial
and public radio and TV stations.
It's just not comparable.
I wouldn't like to think that you're quite as annoying as some of these.
You're pitching for WBAI.
It's not as annoying as it is.
No, it's not the pitching that makes me annoying.
I'm just annoying by default.
But, yeah, I mean...
You're paying a lot of money for listening to commercial radio as well
because the ads that are on those stations have to build in the cost
that millions of dollars in advertising,
build in the cost in the products you buy.
Your product is the radio station itself,
and you're getting great premiums too.
So, please, call 212-209-2950.
This is a really worthwhile cause.
Yeah, this is always the danger we get into when we offer terrific premiums
because then people get into the shop-at-home mentality
where, can I get a better deal here?
It's not about getting the deal.
It's about investing in the station and keeping this place alive.
When you see something on television,
when you see those late-night TV offers,
or when you watch shop-at-home channels,
you're not sending them your payments to keep that station going.
You're sending it to get a particular product.
It's just very basic.
You're paying for something, you're getting something back.
Here, we're offering something as a gift incentive
to get you to call up and pledge money to the station.
We're not charging the station anything for these DVDs.
We're donating them to the station,
but in hopes that that will get more people to call in.
But the important thing, the most important thing,
is to keep the radio station going.
And what you were saying about annoying sounds, Bernie,
it definitely speaks truth,
because you're listening to this radio station now
because it's not as annoying as another radio station
you could be listening to instead,
which has something like constant commercials,
or bad music, or DJs who talk down to you,
or basically just outlets that do not let you contribute in any way,
whether it's financially or by calling up and speaking on the air,
which we do all the time here.
So please, if that's ever meant anything to you,
this is an important time for us.
We don't usually do this in December.
The fact that we are means that times are really hitting us hard,
and we desperately need your help.
212-209-2950.
Yeah, I just want to point out,
I'd just like to point out the major difference
between us and the commercial station
that most likely would be on this bandwidth were we not here.
The job of the commercial station
is to deliver the audience to their advertisers.
The job of this station is to deliver content to the audience.
And we could not do that without your support.
Your support has kept this station on the air since the 1960s.
It's kept this very show on the air since the 1980s.
We cannot bring it into the future without you.
Absolutely.
And yeah, that's certainly true about commercial radio.
They only exist for that purpose, for the advertisers.
And just look at a trade magazine for radio,
if you don't believe that,
and see how they speak about their demographics,
about their audience, about their billable hours.
It's not about what they put over the radio.
That's just whatever they can do for the least cost
to bring in the money to pay for the advertising.
It's always about the advertising.
And that's why you have products like,
I forget what it's called,
I think the nickname is The Moneymaker or something,
where it actually plays songs slightly faster
so that you can get an extra commercial or two here or there.
Well, I remember when I was a kid,
I used to listen to an AM radio station out of Connecticut.
And they would actually play 45s a little bit faster.
I think they were going at 47 or something.
And it sounded ridiculous.
I mean, I could tell.
But they didn't fix it.
They just kept going
because they were able to squeeze in some more advertising.
So that line of thinking has been going on for quite some time.
Look at that, four calls on the line.
But yeah, that exists on modern commercial radio stations.
And they don't do it so that it's fast enough that you would notice it,
but it definitely happens.
I think people understand what radio is all about,
what the problems with radio today are.
Now, of course, radio in general is facing a huge crisis
because so many people are just simply switching
to their MP3 players or iPods, whatever,
and not listening to the radio anymore.
The reason for that is because most of those stations
aren't any better than an iPod on shuffle.
In fact, I think one of them, that was their slogan.
It's like your iPod on shuffle.
Why wouldn't you listen to your iPod on shuffle then?
Why would you listen to them?
To hear the commercials doesn't make any sense.
I'm sorry.
I don't know how that happened.
I thought I turned that down.
But that's what a lot of commercial radio stations have become,
simply music boxes or just, I guess, relay points
for signals coming from a distant city.
Lots of radio stations, you don't even have anybody local in the same city.
So when you have things like tornado warnings
or emergency alert system activations,
there's nobody there to tell you what's actually going on.
That's how much they care about you
because they don't even staff people in the local radio station.
They just simply retransmit a signal of music or a talk
or something from a distant place.
We're local.
We're here right now.
It's 7.46 p.m.
We're all at 120 Wall Street in New York City
on December 10th, 2008.
Yeah, all here right now.
Room full of people.
Station filled with even more people
and more people coming in after us.
This goes on 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
It's the most incredible place, I think, in Manhattan
with a number of people coming in and going constantly.
Diverse crowds, diverse subject matter.
And yes, controversial.
It'll piss you off sometimes.
It'll make you angry.
It'll make you throw your radio out the window.
But then when you go and you buy a new radio
and you turn that on,
you find yourself listening to WBAI again
because there are things on this radio station
that do matter, that do make you stand up and think.
212-209-2950.
Voltaire.
Another great thing about pledging to the station
is that with every pledge,
you get a membership to the station.
You'll get a ballot in the mail a few months from now
and you'll be able to control the direction
that the station is going in.
You can actually vote for people on our board
and become part of the process.
If you don't like us.
Well, I don't know if you can vote us out,
but you can vote other people
who actually run things around here.
You can do all kinds of things like that.
You can get as involved in the process
as you want to be or as uninvolved as you want to be.
But the important thing is to get at least as involved
as contributing to the station to keep us on the air,
to keep us going.
And if the station goes off the air,
there won't be any .gov of the week anymore.
That's right.
Well, that might encourage people not to call.
Especially after that last one.
The phone number, again, to get all these things,
212-209-2950.
We have three official pledge levels.
If you pledge at least $30, you'll get a T-shirt.
If you pledge $75, you'll get 10 Hope DVDs,
a Hope T-shirt in addition to the Off the Hook T-shirt
and a Hope badge.
If you pledge $125 or more,
you'll get another 10 Hope DVDs.
That's a total of 20.
But you can pledge any amount.
If you are a bankruptcy lawyer who's doing really well
these days, you can pledge $1,000 and get all this stuff.
A sheriff serving foreclosure notices.
Whatever you do.
Or if you can't afford this,
maybe you can only afford the 30 or 25.
25 is a basic membership for WBAI.
And any amount, though, is welcome for sure.
And those of you who are somehow profiting off
what's going on,
and I know there are people out there who do
and who listen,
please pledge a little more
so that it can make up for the shortfalls
that we're experiencing.
Because we are experiencing shortfalls here at the station
and things are being cut,
and it's sad to see that happen.
We're going to continue, however,
if we have to use cardboard microphones
or whatever the cheapest things are,
we'll do it.
But as far as keeping equipment maintained,
keeping the sound going,
fixing things when they break,
paying the rent, paying the transmitter costs,
things like that,
it's all essential to keeping this place alive.
212-209-2950.
Bernie, I'm sure you have something else
to convince people to call.
We have three calls on the line now.
Well, you were just mentioning the transmitter.
That transmitter is on 24-7,
and it puts out an effective radiated power
of tens of thousands of watts
off the top of the Empire State Building.
And that costs a lot of money.
This transmitter spins the electric meter like a top.
It really sucks a lot of juice.
And if it didn't draw so much power,
you wouldn't be able to hear it
anywhere in the New York area.
This station really covers,
well, it reaches four different states.
And it's in the middle of the commercial band.
And it's unique in that it's a listener-supported station
in the middle of the commercial band,
so more people will hear it.
And it's heard over a huge area.
And with content you're not going to hear
anywhere in New York or anywhere else.
It's incredible because, you know,
people don't believe that that's possible.
But it happened through a whole series of flukes
many years ago,
where basically the radio station was donated
by...
Red Hat is waving at me from two rooms away.
I'm supposed to know what that means.
Basically...
Why are you waving?
We need more people.
Oh, there's no...
Okay, we need more people.
So why don't people run down and help?
We have three lines.
If you're one of the people calling in
and the phone's not answering
or it times out,
please call right back.
We have people en route to the tally room right now.
Apparently we have many calls coming in.
I forgot my train of thought.
My train of thought.
What was I just saying?
Where did the station come from?
Oh, yes, yes.
The station was donated many years ago.
And people don't realize that we are a station
in the middle of the FM dial.
Now, the way the FM dial works,
if you've never really noticed this,
below 92,
that's where they shove all of the non-commercial stations.
91.9 and below.
All college stations, religious stations,
and I'm not going to get into the debate
about whether or not that should be non-commercial,
NPR stations,
they're all below 92.
They're not allowed to have commercials.
But occasionally,
you get a radio station that's above 92
that also doesn't have commercials.
Now, because this radio station
used to be a commercial station way back,
it kept the frequency of 99.5,
so we're right smack in the middle of the commercial dial,
but we don't have commercials.
And best of all,
we're just as powerful
as all the other stations in Manhattan.
So we reach the exact same footprint.
And as Bernie was saying,
four states.
Four states on one radio station.
That's incredible.
It's not your average non-commercial station.
Most of them cannot reach anywhere near that.
But in order to maintain that,
in order to keep that frequency,
to keep that power,
we have to fund it, obviously.
And don't think for a second
there aren't people who are snapping at our heels
wanting that license,
wanting that frequency.
What it could go for would be incredible.
And to resist the amount of money
that this organization could make
by selling that frequency,
I think is admirable right there
because they would make
tens of millions of dollars easily
just by selling the frequency.
And we have to make sure that never happens.
And the way to make sure that never happens
is by supporting it as listeners.
Am I right?
212-209-2950.
Support a really worthwhile cause.
Keep yourself entertained
and get some great premiums in the process.
Absolutely. Rob?
Yeah, it's such a series of flukes
that brought this place into existence.
And this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing.
This would not happen again.
If this place shuts down tomorrow,
it's not like we can pick up
and just start over somewhere else.
It would not happen in the same way.
And it would not happen in the heart of the dial,
in the heart of the city.
Yeah, occasionally you hear about stations
that are sold or turned over.
And, you know, they used to be cool stations.
They used to be free-form stations
or non-commercial in some way.
And then they're sold over to some other entity.
And it doesn't get any better.
It gets worse.
And they never go back,
even though people want them to go back.
There's an indication,
or example of that, rather,
so far as a TV station here in New York,
WNYC TV, Channel 31,
used to be, you know, a non-commercial station.
They had all kinds of cool things on.
And then Giuliani, in his wisdom,
decided to sell the station to make money.
And, of course, nobody ever realized
any of the profits from that.
The city didn't benefit in any way.
But we lost a non-commercial TV station.
And now it's a commercial, infomercial,
24 hours a day garbage pile.
And we could never get that back.
That's gone.
WNYC Radio was saved by its listeners.
And that's a good thing.
An NPR outlet in New York City,
we have nothing against that.
But if it came down to pledging to them or us,
we hope you make the right choice
and realize that we actually have people here all the time.
We don't have satellite programming.
We don't leave a switch on overnight
and just have a particular type of music coming over.
It's a community radio,
community radio at its finest.
You can walk into the offices here
and become involved yourself.
It's really, really cool.
212, 209, 2950.
Like we've been saying, radio is changing.
A lot of stations are trimming down.
A lot of people are getting laid off.
And in the commercial radio business,
that affects, I guess, a lot more people.
But the creative stations,
the creative stations, I think, will survive this
because they're providing something different
than your iPod can provide.
They're providing programming.
You can't put your iPod on shuffle and hear us.
Well, unless you record the show and listen to an old show.
But as far as just playing music,
just playing what everybody else is playing,
we don't do that.
We do alternatives in all different things,
news, music, information.
It's all alternatives.
212, 209, 2950.
We have five calls on the line, which is very good.
And I'm pleased people have been calling in.
And I know it's hard to read that screen.
We're almost at 600, I believe.
But I don't think they've added everything together
because of all the frenzy going on down there in the tally room.
So let's run over the premiums one more time,
then we have to get out of here
and make way for the next program.
Yes, there's a whole nother program coming on after us.
And after that program, another program.
It just keeps happening.
And it happens 24 hours a day,
seven days a week,
365 days a year.
It's magic.
366 in leap years.
365.25.
We do not take February 29th off here at WBAI.
Well, I don't think anybody does.
Although I've long advocated February 29th
being this worldwide holiday
where everybody just does whatever they want to do
and has more fun than ever
because it's only once every four years.
Well, what we would want to do is keep doing this radio,
but you have to help us make it possible.
Yeah.
212-209-2950.
Okay, 10 DVDs from The Last Hope,
Hackers on Planet Earth conference
that took place in July.
You'll get 10 DVDs.
And they were incredulous down in the tally room
when I was showing them this.
You don't mean 10 DVDs for 70.
Yeah, 10.
One, zero.
For 75, you'll get Stephen Levy's keynote.
You'll get Adam Savage,
Kevin Mitnick,
Jello Biafra,
a whole bunch of other things.
For a pledge of $75,
you'll also get the Hope t-shirt.
You'll get the Hope badge
and you'll get the Off the Hook t-shirt.
All for $75.
212-209-2950.
And for 125,
you'll get 10 plus another 10,
meaning 20 DVDs
in addition to the shirts and the badge.
212-209-2950.
I guess we're out of time now.
So keep those calls coming in.
I want to thank everybody for supporting us,
for keeping this place alive,
not just now,
over the years,
over the decades.
Because without those people,
we wouldn't be here now.
And you can become one of those people
to keep us going for future generations.
But let's get one more call before we go.
Who wants to bring it in?
The number 212-209-2950.
We have just a few minutes left.
Don't be one of those people
who emails us right after the show
saying,
oh, I missed the deadline.
I want to get these premiums.
How can I do it?
The answer is next week.
Maybe we'll be able to do something for you.
But this week,
you have about three minutes left
to call us on 212-209-2950.
Show your support.
You get the premiums,
but you also get the radio station.
And there's nothing better than that.
Five calls on the line.
Thank you to those people who called in.
212-209-2950.
We'll be taking calls for a little bit longer.
Your email is oth at 2600.com.
That's another song about telephones.
We're going out with that.
We'll see you next week on Off The Hook.
Good night.
I ring-a-ling-a,
I ring-a-ling-a-ling
There was 45 men in a telephone booth last night
I ring-a-ling-a,
I ring-a-ling-a-ling
I was trying to get in just to find out that you'd be free
I ring-a-ling-a,
I ring-a-ling-a-ling
I ran through the liquor,
I ran through the lover,
And I knew that's what I wanted to do
I ring-a-ling-a-ling
I ran through the lovers,
I ran through the men,
And my heart went flutter for you
But there was 45 men in a telephone booth last night
I ring-a-ling-a,
I ring-a-ling-a-ling
There was 45 men in a telephone booth last night
I ring-a-ling-a,
I ring-a-ling-a-ling
So baby, baby, tell me the truth
Why can't I call on you?
But there was 45 men in a telephone booth last night
I ring-a-ling-a,
I ring-a-ling-a-ling
There was 45 men in a telephone booth last night
I ring-a-ling-a,
I ring-a-ling-a-ling
I was trying to get in just to find out that there was no room for me
I ring-a-ling-a,
I ring-a-ling-a-ling
But there was 45 men in a telephone booth last night
I ring-a-ling-a,
I ring-a-ling-a-ling
There was 45 men in a telephone booth last night
I ring-a-ling-a,
I ring-a-ling-a-ling
I was trying to get in just to find out that you were free
I ring-a-ling-a,
I ring-a-ling-a-ling
Ring-a-ling-a-ling
Ring-a-ling-a-ling
Ring-a-ling-a-ling
My heart went flutter for you
But there were 45 men in a telephone booth last night
Last night, a ring-a-ling-a, a ring-a-ling-a-ling
There was 45 men in the telephone booth
Last night, a ring-a-ling-a, a ring-a-ling-a-ling
So baby, baby, tell me true
What can I call you?