Fax-mad New Yorkers

Not so long ago, ….. typical New York sign-off used to be 'Have a nice day'. It is fast being replaced by ….. new one: 'What's your fax number?' From Tokyo to London to Los Angeles, ….. craze of ….. facsimile machine is sweeping ….. world, but no city seems to have gone as fax mad as New York. Radio stations, for example, are taking ….. record requests by ….. fax - ….. advantage is that ….. office workers can do it without ….. boss hearing them telephone. To order ….. lunch, you can zap off ….. completed 'le fax menu' to your favourite restaurant. If you are looking for ….. partner for ….. evening you fax your needs to ….. fax-dating service. Down in Greenwich Village, there are even ….. artists busy developing ….. genre of ….. fax art. Half ….. telephone calls from New York to Japan are between ….. fax machines. This being New York, you can also, of course, use ….. machine to communicate with your 'shrink' for some fax therapy.

….. craze, however, has its excesses and various spoilsports are already working on ways of reining in ….. more dubious joys of fax. First, there is ….. danger of faxing in ….. fast lane. ….. police have decreed that under no circumstances may you transmit from your car fax while on ….. move, though of course you may receive.

People in the fax industry are also expecting restrictions on ….. growing menace in ….. new culture - junk faxes. ….. advertising companies which pack your letter box with 'personalized' brochures and telephone you to offer their goods just as you are sitting down to ….. dinner, have latched on to ….. fax with ….. vengeance. Since they are presumed to be affluent, people with fax machines are ….. desirable target. Since machines cannot filter out unwanted callers, they are being increasingly clogged up with unsolicited advertising.

There is another hazard in faxing that can cause embarrassment - ….. wrong number. It can prove ticklish to fax ….. love letter to ….. office machine by …..mistake. More damaging, though, is ….. mis-faxed business letter. Things have gone so far that some experts are predicting ….. imminent 'fax-lash'.

The Times (BrE)