I wonder if there is a formal name for the practice of spelling words by giving a phonetic example for each letter. Phone operators have a memorized database and develop a sing-songy quality when giving you a confirmation: “A as in apple, C as in cat, P as in pear, H as in hat…” You can’t help but picture every noun named - like a kindergarten alphabet reader with delicious pictures. When poor numbers are thrown in, they sound stark and plain in comparison, the uncoordinated middle child. 

The other day, the Comcast lady, who was clearly in the middle of India, gave such a lovely, lilting, poetic reading of my full name that I wanted to ask her to do it again so I could write it down or secretly record it:

R as in rabbit

A as in apple

C as in can

H as in hero

E as in elephant …