FIGHTING PHONE FRUSTRATION. If you're sick of pressing 1, pressing 1, pressing 4, pressing 5, and so forth, get ready to go to Paul English's website and save his "cheat-sheet" for circumventing automated phone systems at major companies, including airlines, AT&T, Cingular, Dell, IBM, etc.

As English puts it here:

Frustrated? How about when you call your phone company and they ask for your phone number? Or when your bank asks you to type in your credit card or ATM number, and then when you finally get a human on the phone, they ask you to tell them again. Hello, don't I pay *you* guys money?

English also offers some intelligent tips for dealing with a parent who has dementia.

Thanks to Gothamist for the lead.

Photo: David Marc Fischer