{
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  "description": "Dan Lewis' April 21, 2026 \"Now I Know\" newsletter covered the subject of Garfield (the comic cat) phones washing up in France. It is a good (and well-sourced) story, but here I will focus on his opening sentence: \"If you grew up in the 1980s, there's a decent chance you had a novelty telephone in...",
  "path": "/naferrell/remember-my-clamshell-landline-phone-04-22-26/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-04-22T19:57:59.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:uj4544464fcisay6kaezgzqg/site.standard.publication/3mmd47v6izbzu",
  "tags": [
    "anecdotes",
    "dial-up internet",
    "phones"
  ],
  "textContent": "Dan Lewis’ April 21, 2026 “Now I Know” newsletter covered the subject of Garfield (the comic cat) phones washing up in France. It is a good (and well-sourced) story, but here I will focus on his opening sentence: “If you grew up in the 1980s, there’s a decent chance you had a novelty telephone in your home — one shaped like a football, a hamburger, or perhaps a cartoon character.” While I was technically born in the 80s, I grew up in the 90s. Nevertheless, I do remember at least one novelty phone. For some time in the second-half of the 90s around when we acquired a still-working Newpoint Switcher 2000 Plus, we had a clamshell (as in it looked like a sea shell, not just how it opened) land-line phone that opened up to reveal the speaker and number pad. I remember it in part because I know it was our phone for at least part of the time we had AOL dial-up internet (related: see a thing I learned recently about MSN dial-up). Regarding Mr. Lewis’ opening line, I will submit that while I never had a football-shaped phone, I did have a stuffed-football-shaped universal remote from RadioShack (that was in the early-to-mid 2000s).",
  "title": "Remembering My Clamshell Landline Phone"
}