D-Dial #9, Fairfield County, Connecticut

D-Dial
It stood for "Diversi-DIAL," but nobody ever called it that.

Some poor fool with an Apple IIe (spelled "Apple //e") and seven 300 baud modems -- 300 baud! -- Someone who actually had seven extra phone lines installed in his house, and who had to pay for them every month. (You know who you are, and you know that while I call you a "fool" -- I considered "sap" -- I will always be grateful that you were willing to throw all that money away so that I could chat with my friends.)

Were we geeks, or pioneers?

From the mid-1980's through the fall of 1991, I lived in Fairfield County, Connecticut, home of D-Dial #9, The Three-Ring Circuit, and its several later incarnations:

oOo The Three-Ring Circuit
A clever name for which I can claim no credit.

cCc TriCon
The "Connecticut Conversation Connection," and I was damn proud of having thought up that name.

Madagascar Madagascar
I told people it was named after the most useless territory in Parker Brothers' Risk, and therefore the most essential, but it was really just something Booka said.

Belgium Belgium
Because it meant something obscene in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Douglas Adams later wrote a book about Madagascar (the island), which we all thought was really cool.

Morocco Morocco
I don't know where this name came from, but I tell people who ask about the flag (and I still proudly display the flags of Morocco, Belgium, and Madagascar in my home, along with the flags of Finland and Brazil, which I reasonably figured might be next, due to their significance to Monty Python and Terry Gilliam fans) that it is to honor the country which gave us the settings for both Casablanca and Ishtar. There was also a line in the hilarious Jeff Goldblum movie, The Tall Guy: "Morocco? Isn't that where men go to pick up young boys?" -- but that would actually be more appropriate to the Internet chat systems of today.

	From the mid-1980's through the fall of 1991, I lived in Fairfield County, Connecticut, home of D-Dial #9, The Three-Ring Circuit, and its several later incarnations:
	The Three-Ring Circuit A clever name for which I can claim no credit.
	TriCon The "Connecticut Conversation Connection," and I was damn proud of having thought up that name.
	Madagascar I told people it was named after the most useless territory in Parker Brothers' Risk, and therefore the most essential, but it was really just something Booka said.
	Belgium Because it meant something obscene in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Douglas Adams later wrote a book about Madagascar (the island), which we all thought was really cool.
	Morocco I don't know where this name came from, but I tell people who ask about the flag (and I still proudly display the flags of Morocco, Belgium, and Madagascar in my home, along with the flags of Finland and Brazil, which I reasonably figured might be next, due to their significance to Monty Python and Terry Gilliam fans) that it is to honor the country which gave us the settings for both Casablanca and Ishtar. There was also a line in the hilarious Jeff Goldblum movie, The Tall Guy: "Morocco? Isn't that where men go to pick up young boys?" -- but that would actually be more appropriate to the Internet chat systems of today.