Neil Who? : Oregon Governor Visits L.A. Jeweler to Make Amends for Good Phone Idea but Bad Spellers

The voters of Oregon made Neil Goldschmidt their governor.

But that doesn’t mean that they can spell his name.

And we’re not talking about the Goldschmidt part.

“It’s a little embarrassing,” the governor acknowledged Wednesday.

Hundreds of Oregonians trying to telephone his highly touted, toll-free dial-your-gripe line, 1-800-322-NEIL, instead rang up 1-800-322-NIEL and began pouring out their problems to the person who answered the phone: a perplexed Los Angeles wholesale jeweler who couldn’t understand why people would call him to talk to the governor of Oregon.

On Wednesday, the governor, in Los Angeles for meetings, dropped by Angel’s Jewelry to make hearty amends and even offered to pay the 32-cent-a-minute phone tariff for the wrong numbers--as many as 30 a day--that have jangled the jewelers’ phone daily since the governor’s gab line went in.

“When was it . . . three weeks?” said Goldschmidt casually.

“Three weeks exactly, “ jeweler Rosie Balian said sharply.

“We thought we’d had this very clever idea,” said the governor, whose office gets nearly 250 calls a day from voters who can spell his name. “I think we’re gonna change my name.”

For the governor’s visit, during which the phone did not ring--although Goldschmidt posed for photos holding the receiver expectantly--the jewelers laid on an early morning spread of California champagne, liqueur-laden petit fours and pistachio-topped cream puffs.

They also presented the governor with a custom, 14-karat-gold, diamond-dotted tie tack bearing his initials, in case voters forget.

“It’s not very often I get help from the state of California,” the governor beamed.

He, in turn, autographed a book of Oregon photos for the family-operated company: “To my friends and honorary Oregonians.”

“These people are working for the state of Oregon, and we appreciate it,” declared the Democratic governor. “We’re a poor little state . . . we need the help,”

In spite of Wednesday’s love feast, the calls, which have tapered off to 10 or 12 a day, have been exasperating to a wholesale business that depends on the telephone for 90% of its trade.

“We had problems,” said co-owner Jack Balian. “All the lines were busy” with calls from the likes of an elderly man complaining about a new 25-cent Oregon phone tariff for deaf services to a woman insisting that Oregon’s lottery money go to the public schools.

“Everybody was giving their opinion,” said his wife, Rosie. “Some people were mad; they were even mad at us when we tell them this is a wrong number. One guy asked me, ‘Then tell me how to spell it right.’ ”

Still, said Kathy Pogossian, the wife of one of the owners, when one woman learned she had reached a Los Angeles jeweler and not the Oregon governor, “she said, ‘Do you have a jade ring?’ ”

It took them a few days to figure out what the mix-up was. Their own number is 1-800-32-ANGEL--not even close to NEIL.

“The telephone company gave the right number to the governor and they gave the right number to us,” said Rosie Balian. “It’s just the people mixing up the spelling.”

More literate Oregonians sometimes dialed 1-800-322-NEAL and got a freeze-dried food company in Grass Valley, Calif., but “he’s not visiting them,” murmured an Oregonian accompanying the governor.

Balian and his family-partners are still bemused by the Oregonians’ difficulty. After all, the Armenian-American jeweler agreed, they don’t have the slightest trouble spelling their governor’s name.