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Call me, I am the book

Posted by Smokey Stover on July 24, 2007

In Reply to: Call me, I am the book posted by Johs Chr Johansen on July 24, 2007

: I am interested in the origins of the following phrase: >> Call me, I am the book <<. The meaning is clear. The book being the Telephone Catalogue. I think phrase have used in an older movie - but I don't know the title. I seen phrase used in books and in postings on bulletin boards and newsgroups.

I think what you want is, "Call me; I'm in the book." This DOES mean, "My name and phone number are in the telephone book [i.e., directory]." That being the case, the speaker doesn't feel required actually to give you his phone number. The phrase is commonissimo, and probably has been since phone books were invented.
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