I don't know if the URL will work for anyone who doesn't subscribe to the online AP stylebook, but today's change is one that reverses about five decades of accepted news-writing style:

telephone numbers Use figures. The form: 212-621-1500. For international numbers use 011 (from the United States), the country code, the city code and the telephone number: 011-44-20-7535-1515. Use hyphens, not periods.

The form for toll-free numbers: 800-111-1000.

If extension numbers are needed, use a comma to separate the main number from the extension: 212-621-1500, ext. 2.

For as long as I've been alive, AP style guidelines called for numbers like (212) 621-1500, and back when MDJ printed them in each issue, that's what we used. Now it's changed. Just one more of the billions of little things I have to track. The world used to be an easier place.

(The phone number in question, in case you're wondering, is for Associated Press headquarters in New York.)