Dear Jammie,
As I locked up my bike to a telephone pole last night outside the Nirvana tribute concert, I suddenly wondered why they were called telephone poles. Sure, they carry telephone wires, but they carry more electrical wires than anything. And cable. Why not cable poles? Or electrical poles? What other kind of wires are up there?
But then I guess they would have had to originally be telephone poles because didn't people start getting phone service before they started getting electrical service and indoor toilets? That's how I remember it happening on Little House on the Prairie and I'm pretty sure that's historically accurate.
Now I forget my question. We should all collectively Google the origin of poles.