I am pleased to announce that I have received a personal response from a man who, after seven years of unrelenting research and effort, claims to have solved the problem!

Below is the text of his letter:

Hi --

I got to your post by Google search for stretched phone cords.

A phone cord is constructed to be as happy to form a left-handed
and a right-handed coil. You may decide what you prefer.

To de-entangle:
1. Get the phone off the net [i.e., stop the dial tone]
2. Pick up the handset with your right hand
3. With your left hand, hold the helical coil above the defect
4. Let the handset down and do its thing
5. With a finger of your right hand, pull down from the defective
site and rotate the cord as you wish, until you reach the headset.

Sorry, it took too long to get "approved". Here is the short answer.
From South Africa, Cape Town right now.

Enjoy your phones!

-- David

From:
---------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. David Tomanek, Professor of Physics Tel: +1-517-355-9702 (office)
Physics and Astronomy Department or: +1-517-884-5637
Michigan State University +1-517-347-8988 (home)
567 Wilson Road, BPS Bldg. Room 4231 +1-517-410-6930 (mobile)

Now, at last, we can get back to our normal lives. No more sleepless nights worrying about unsightly twisted phone cords. No more worrying about losing our jobs because we spend too much time researching this problem. No more concern about Trump winning the election, because now we can untangle our phone cords and America will be great once again!

tanstaafl.