On a certain comedy detective show I sometimes watched some 30 years ago, the hero was hired to find a missing person. Two hours later he told the person who hired him the address and phone number of the “missing person.” “Amazing! How did you do that?”, his employer asked. “”Oh, I looked him up in the telephone book.”

In any case, the great mystery concerning Google’s well-guarded phone number is now solved. My friend, Howard Pospesel, had the ingenuity to type the phrase “Google’s phone number” into the internet box for Google. Voilá. Up it popped! Hire this man!

In case you should ever need it: 650 253 0000. I hope Google doesn’t sue me.