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May062005

(5.09.05 issue) What happens when you call the phone number in this week's Shouts & Murmurs?

Filed under: Hit Parade   Tagged: ,

The number, in Patricia Marx's clever Audio Tour, is (212) 399-4838, an unusually authentic-sounding number to give out. Would there be an elaborate fiction on the other side, or even the weaselly Todd Niesle himself? Though I didn't try at 3 a.m., as the vengeful Debby suggests, I did call. I got this message:


"Thank you for calling Mutual of America. Our office has relocated. Our new telephone number is: (212) 224-1600. Thank you for calling Mutual of America."

Over at Mutual of America, they haven't been getting any curious calls (and don't remember speaking to anyone at the magazine). They do get The New Yorker there in the office, but nobody'd seen the story that communications director Marilyn Graves knew of. "That number was from our old location," she said. How long ago did they move? "Oh, we've been here in this building [on Park Avenue] for ten years." They certainly cover their bases! The old location: 666 Fifth Ave. Todd, is there something else we didn't know about you?

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