Wall-Bangers

The letter to you about the snoring neighbor has a familiar sound to it—no pun intended. [“Soundscaping,” 4/22/10.] In 1965 my late wife and I lived in a rented apartment in Hollywood, where the bedroom of our apartment was separated from the apartment of my neighbor by a tissue-paper-thin wall, and one of the occupants, presumably the husband, would wake us during the night with loud snoring. It being a simpler world in 1965, without cell phones and with listed telephone numbers, I resorted to dialing his phone when his snoring awoke us. On the second ring he would stop snoring, although he was not yet fully awake and, therefore, did not answer his phone. I doubt that he even knew that he had been awakened. It worked for us and perhaps it will work for your correspondent. —Ron Stern