To Hear the Angels Sing

Westbury Hotel, San Francisco, 1974: One evening, as I was working the graveyard shift with Henry So, the night auditor, I had the phone to my ear and noticed something very odd.

“Henry!” I called out. “Did you hear the angels sing?”

Henry, slim and dapper in his charcoal suit with vest, put down his Benson & Hedges cigarette, and said no, he’d not heard the angels sing. Actually, what he said was “Whaaaa?”

So I showed him, and I’ll share this wonderful secret with you, too. After all, it’s the season of love, right?

Here’s what you do. Pick up your telephone and hold it to your ear.

But don’t dial anybody. Don’t press the touch-tones. That will stop the angels from singing. You must just hold the phone very gently to your ear without touch-toning.

Listen very quietly. Listen very carefully.

You will hear the angels singing.