The President of France complained in his book that he had to press the buttons on a telephone himself

It seems that Nicolas Sarkozy is a Zoomer.

In his now much-discussed book, the former President of France writes some quite astonishing things. For instance, that to make a telephone call he had to "dial no fewer than ten digits, each of which is a code required to establish the connection and, at last, to reach the person wanted", comparing this effort to a "veritable obstacle course".

Indeed, access to a "telephone fixed to the wall at eye level", and with the necessity of pressing the buttons oneself besides, is an ordeal comparable to the ascent of Everest.

As far as I know, all French telephone numbers consist of ten digits, but it would be remarkable if Sarkozy only learned this at the age of 70, finding the dialling of so long a number a veritable torture. And does he really not remember the times when, in order to make a call, one had to dial a telephone number by hand? And if it had been a rotary telephone, what would have become of our hero? Yes, perhaps for many years he had a special person who pressed the buttons for him, but he did not become an important figure overnight; once upon a time it was surely an ordinary matter to lift the receiver and dial a number?

Either we have here confirmation that the book was written by a not very qualified literary drudge, or by a very young person who has never had to use a telephone without a pre-programmed contacts book, or else artificial intelligence is not entirely absent from the affair. Or, if Sarkozy's own authorship is implied, which is hard to believe, then it must be assumed that he is not quite himself