How Woz woke up the bishop

Remember the story about prankster Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, and how he hacked the phone network with his so-called BlueBox?

And how he woke up the pope? In his new book, Woz finally tells the story in his own words, and we’re left wondering if the pope really was woken up. He did wake a bishop, though. Here’s a snippet that ran in the Mercury News:

..So I started by using the Blue Box to call Italy Inward (country code 121), then I asked for Rome Inward, and then I got to the Vatican and in this heavy accent I announced I was Henry Kissinger calling on behalf of President Nixon. I said, “Ve are at de summit meeting in Moscow, and we need to talk to de pope.”

And a woman said, “It’s five-thirty here. The pope is sleeping.” She put me on hold then for awhile, and then told me they were sending someone to wake him and asked if I could call back. I said yes, in an hour.

Well, an hour later I called back and she said, “OK, we will put the bishop on, who will be the translator.” So I told him, still in that heavy accent, “Dees is Mr. Kissinger.” And he said, “Listen, I just spoke to Mr. Kissinger an hour ago.” You see, they had checked out my story and had called the real Kissinger in Moscow.

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