At least my dial phone will not access the "punch 1 for Serbo-Croatian and punch 2 for Smoke Signals" that seems to be the only "service" option now. If you want a touch tone phone, it still costs "extra", even though that's simpler equipment for them. I have to pay it so that the computer will dial out. We finally got the Spanish-American War of 1898 paid for. The 3% excise tax for that was finally abolished in July of 2006.

I'm trying to rollover an IRA from one bank to another. They won't do that directly any more, for some reason. One gave me some instructions on a sticky note to take back home. At the kitchen phone, the service puncher at the other place had insufficient options for what I actually wanted to do. I managed to get a person by hitting the star key a few times. They asked whether I could come into the branch where I opened the IRA and process my request. I said, "Sorry, that was three banks ago before they changed names several times. I'm in Texas anyway, and you're in Cincinnati." I had to send an e-mail message to another particular person. At the moment, he and another were "tied up". Is there only one person in the USA at that bank that could handle IRAs for the rest of the world? I did say that if they were tied up, we have some Texas Rangers here that could take care of that situation. That was a couple of days ago, and I hadn't heard any more from them after sending my e-mail.