On Friday, October 31, 2014 1:27:39 PM UTC-5, wrote:

WTF is wrong with you ? I am certainly not the fool here. That joke about the dog barking is a JOKE.

Lemme splain it to you, telco wires are not grounded, they are a pair. IF, and this is a pretty good sized IF, one of them became grounded at all there would be a ****load of noise on the line, probably to the point of making it unusable.

IT IS FICTION. And thanx for trying unsuccessfully to bust my balls. It makes me look good.

Are you calling me a liar? I WAS THERE, I SAW IT. This was 1979, rural Louisiana, South Central Bell. The customer's service was a PARTY LINE, with 2 parties sharing the same pair. When party 1 received a call, the ringing voltage was sent down the tip side of the line. The ringer in the phone was wired from the tip side to ground. When party 2 received a call, the ringing voltage was sent down the ring side of the line. His phone was wired as party 2, with the ringer connected to the ring side and ground. When the dog owner got a call, the ringing voltage went from his side of the line to ground, which was connected to a water pipe the dog was chained to. The soil was very dry, so the ground was not very good, probably a high resistance. The dog provided a better ground. And no, this is not a joke.