
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, May 5, 1995                   TAG: 9505050080
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

O BEFORE Z ... EXCEPT IN ROANOKE'S PHONE BOOK

DAVID O'DELL didn't want his phone number listed. So he wasn't surprised when he didn't find it in the O's. But in the Z's? Bell Atlantic's response: "A printing glitch."

David and Nancy O'Dell spell their surname, obviously, with an "O."

The phone company, on the other hand, apparently spells it with a "Z."

At least that would explain why the listing for the O'Dells' phone number in the Bell Atlantic phone book is smack in the middle of a bunch of Z names. More precisely, right between Mohammed Zerhouni of Blacksburg and Sam and Debbie Zerwekh of Elliston.

For some unfathomable reason, David O'Dell, who owns O'Dell's Place restaurant on Pollard Street in Vinton, never thought to look for his name in the Zs, so he had no idea it was listed there. In fact, he thought his number was unlisted.

"Well, they screwed up, didn't they," he said as he flipped to page 294 of the new book and scanned down the first column. Then, he was struck by a thought.

"You all must not have anything to do at the newspaper but go looking through the phone book for mistakes," he said.

Then he was struck by another, ahem, equally inaccurate thought.

"Maybe all the unlisted numbers are just spread throughout the phone book," he mused. "Maybe I've been in the Z's all along."

Not quite.

Actually, the O'Dells were caught among the Z's last year, but not before. In fact, the O'Dells, who David says are not paying to be nonpublished, have been conspicuously absent from the book since 1990, when they got their current phone number.

So how did it happen? A sick prank? Sabotage? A conspiracy of JFK proportions?

Sadly, the truth is much less intriguing.

"I wish I had some witty and poignant explanation for it," Bell Atlantic Area Manager Don Reid said wearily. "It's just a printing glitch. What can you say?"

Reid, who extends his apologies to the O'Dells, said this year's book has proved to be relatively clean. This is only the third error that's been pointed out to him.

For the record, the listing for O'Dell's restaurant is correct.

And Reid may find some relief in the fact that the error is replicated in the Bell Atlantic book's chief competitor in Roanoke, the gray-covered Community Directory, which apparently used the same information as Bell Atlantic.

Ultimately, David O'Dell doesn't mind the error too much. Being in the Zs is about as good as being unlisted, which, unlike his wife, Nancy, is what he really wanted, anyway.

"I just won't tell anybody I'm in the phone book," he said. "Of course, now that you all are going to put in the paper, that won't do any good."

by CNB