The One Question I Can't Stand at Restaurants ("What's your phone number?")

Commenters argued about the annoyance of being asked for phone numbers (and contact info) at checkout. Some, like steelframe, said they give jokey numbers such as an area code plus 867‑5309 to avoid confrontation, while others report using blatantly fake names and numbers (pluc) or poking fun with "Plus 48…" to make clerks pause (jareklupinski). timnetworks described a situation where a retail clerk became distressed when he tried to use a 555 number, and cisc quoted a line about businesses trying to "build a database on everybody," which framed privacy and marketing concerns. Others saw the email request as worse: nubinetwork complained about juggling many addresses and staff who repeatedly butcher them, leading to refusal rather than compliance; wolvoleo said they’ve never been asked for any contact details at all.

The conversation shifted into email-aliasing and account hygiene. ButlerianJihad recalled using Gmail plus‑addressing widely but abandoning it because it complicated customer‑service verification unless you use a password manager; he also used it to trace a leak from Echovita. pluc and steelframe recommended Fastmail’s masked‑email aliases and noted integration with password managers, while aeve890 asked whether Proton’s SimpleLogin offers the same function; pluc contrasted implementations and likened some services to Mozilla Relay. A few commenters (TZubiri, add-sub-mul-div) criticized the article’s literary tone and urged not to make a spectacle of minor annoyances.