666 common knowledge or not?

[88speedkeys]

Just to make sure I'm not alone on this one...

So at my work I received a phone-call from some company. I forgot what for and it wasn't for me but for a colleague that wasn't there at that moment. I asked if I could write down their name and phone-number so my colleague can call them back.
So when I wrote down the phone-number I saw it ended with the numbers 666. I then can't help making some smart comment about it. I'm sure it wasn't THAT funny, but you know... something had to be said about it, right?? Develish company... something of that sort. So I expected the guy reacting politely saying that they hear that all the time... Yet the reaction was... "I'm sorry sir, I have no clue what you are talking about..."

So... was my presumtion that most people know the meaning of this particular number a bit too 'shortsighted?'
Then again, asking people on the strato-forum might give a coloured view...
You be the judge!

[black death]

I can't imagine saying something like this to the phone to someone whom I don't know. I don't know what you're doing, but I'm absolutely SURE that our business partners wouldn't understand that, as well as "your" person on the phone.
If you don't know who you're speaking with, it's not too suitable to make such jokes (especially in work), the other person very likely will not get it ...if you're not working in a metal magazine or something similar

[stratoplayer]

It is quite famous... but Metal Heads have sort of coined the number as thier own. Or maybe he was lying and trying not to flame the company.

[Dawn_is_Here]

Hehehe, it's funny that you mentioned this, 'cause as a matter of fact, I work in a local bank here, and our Helpdesk number for electronic banking ends with "666"

And I can tell you that some clients do make comments about it in a joking way, of course they are only a few, but it happens

An it's true that metalheads kinda feel that number is ours, last year me and my boyfriend organized a festival on 06/06/06 and called it "Metalfest 6/6/6, once only every century" and it was one of the most succesful gigs we've done

Rock On!

[browneyedgirl]

Ah, 666, my Ex's birthday(6/15/51).
Very appropriate.
His car tag number is 666, btw.
The dumbass actually requested it!

Its just a number, actually, although it is mentioned in the Bible as an ID for the Anti-Christ. The divine number is 7, so the 6 falls short, the antichrist triplely falls short because he/she is so evil. Hence, 666.

[88speedkeys]

I can't imagine saying something like this to the phone to someone whom I don't know. I don't know what you're doing, but I'm absolutely SURE that our business partners wouldn't understand that, as well as "your" person on the phone.
If you don't know who you're speaking with, it's not too suitable to make such jokes (especially in work), the other person very likely will not get it ...if you're not working in a metal magazine or something similar

Yes, it may have sounded a bit 'unsuitable' but I wasn't too insulting. You can take my word for that. I'm not like that. And he was trying to sell us something. Sometimes you just help get a conversation going. Anyway, I also explained him about the number and just maybe he understood (assuming he wanted to know...). But it did get me thinking about how well-known the meaning of this number really is.
And why am I whistling this Iron Maiden song right now...
I do know people as well that would love to have this combination in either their license-plate, phone-number or whatever. To me it's become more of a cliché, really...

[black death]

I can't imagine saying something like this to the phone to someone whom I don't know. I don't know what you're doing, but I'm absolutely SURE that our business partners wouldn't understand that, as well as "your" person on the phone.
If you don't know who you're speaking with, it's not too suitable to make such jokes (especially in work), the other person very likely will not get it ...if you're not working in a metal magazine or something similar

Yes, it may have sounded a bit 'unsuitable' but I wasn't too insulting. You can take my word for that. I'm not like that. And he was trying to sell us something. Sometimes you just help get a conversation going. Anyway, I also explained him about the number and just maybe he understood (assuming he wanted to know...). But it did get me thinking about how well-known the meaning of this number really is.
And why am I whistling this Iron Maiden song right now...
I do know people as well that would love to have this combination in either their license-plate, phone-number or whatever. To me it's become more of a cliché, really...

Of course it depends on the spirit of the conversation , don't take somehow personally what I wrote, I just imagined the faces of some of our business partners (especially those wealthy nobby ascetic people) if I said it

I think it's quite famous and almost everybody will remember it after a while, but maybe not immediately.

And I guess it gained some "popularity" because of this "666" pop song...or was it band?? I don't remember it too much, but some years ago there was such a shitty song that many of my peers (teenagers) loved and I was still saying that it's shit

[88speedkeys]

I didn't take it personally. I'm not that easily offended.
And then, you had a good point in questioning wether or not a remark like I made on the phone was really okay. And I can imagine a whole lot of conversations in which I wouldn't have commented about the particular number.
Maybe I'm too focussed on numbers. Should I say that my previous phone number ended with 69?
No, I wont....

[stratoplayer]

I didn't take it personally. I'm not that easily offended.
And then, you had a good point in questioning wether or not a remark like I made on the phone was really okay. And I can imagine a whole lot of conversations in which I wouldn't have commented about the particular number.
Maybe I'm too focussed on numbers. Should I say that my previous phone number ended with 69?
No, I wont....

Hehehehe, that is reading a bit too much into it, but you are not alone.