The noble telephone operator used to be a beacon in the night, a lone voice amongst the static, before the days of fiber optics and computer-generated hold music. No offense to the poor saps doing time at the 411 stations across the country, but their field pales in comparison to the true "information, please" operators of yesterday. Fortunately here in Austin, we have the noble operators at the University of Texas' General Information line. These are real people, and they know their stuff, from direct-office extensions of deans and profs to the most appropriate person to explain the legend behind the Alec statue in the Engineering Library. And in the rare event that they become stumped, they call a supervisor before you have to ask them to. At UT, the noble operator lives!
