Cloud Nine ...

... and much more: Savory Obscurities. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

In the early 20th century, rival phone greetings included "Do I get you?" and the awkward alternative preferred in England, "Are you there?" Simply saying "hello" was considered ugly phone etiquette until the New York Times championed it as "virile." A New York telephone company tried to stamp out the usage once more in 1937, recommending that callers "avoid such old-fashioned, indefinite and time-wasting words as 'hello,' " but the public refused to say goodbye.

How the Times has declined.