Pound sign (was Re: the Telephone Test)

[Mark A Terribile]

In article <147 at ixi.UUCP>, clive at ixi.UUCP (Clive) writes:
> ...
> > ...
> >>	pound include studio-h (dancers might include studio-54 :->)
 
> The character that looks like [ # ]

> is a "number" sign or a "hash" sign. It is NOT repeat NOT a pound sign.
> A pound sign is what appears on a five pound note, and looks like:
 
 >      --
 >     /
 > ---+---
 > ---+---
 >   /
 > -------
 
> (or some more ornate version). How would you like it if I kept
> saying:
>        dollar include stood eye oh dot aitch

Sorry, Clive.  I have before me Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, Eighth
Edition.  It is open to the section on ``Signs and Symbols.''  Under the
heading ``Business'' I find

	#  number if it precedes a number <track #3>; pounds
	   if it follows <a 5# sack of sugar>

In other words, it's pounds aviordupois, not pounds sterling.

The usage is legitimate, although perhaps we should write

	include#

and

	if#

The late Ma Bell would have liked us to call it an octothorpe--in fact, I
think in some parts of AT&T they still call it that when it appears on a
Touch-Tone (is that still a registered Service and Trade Mark?) telephone set.
I can tell you that the announcements built into some of their products
instruct the user to ``Press five, followed by the Pound Sign.''
-- 

(This man's opinions are his own.)
>From mole-end				Mark Terribile