TheBanyanTree: I'm NOT CHUCK

[Dee]

Scott Daniels wrote:

>So twice now I've come to my office on Monday morning to find a frantic voice mail.
>
Ah, Scott, folks don't *listen* like they should. You try to put a 
clear, concise message on the answering machine so errors like that 
don't happen. But the folks leaving their messages are only concerned 
with -- well, leaving the messages.

I once had a lawyer leave a message concerning a bill that was overdue. 
Trouble is, he was leaving it for someone else entirely and, had he only 
listened, he'd have realized he had the wrong number. To make matters 
worse, I knew the gentleman he was attempting to reach and I'm sure that 
person would not have been happy to learn I was privy to his private 
business.

My most startling wrong message was a death threat! Some anguished 
individual who was obviously  well behind a few too many libations of 
the alcoholic nature assured me he was gonna kill me. Only the "me" in 
question wasn't me. I didn't recognize the voice and I'm sure I had 
never met him. So I took the tape down to the cop shop and said, "I 
don't know how seriously you can take someone who is stupid enough to 
leave death threats on a tape but somebody in this town has someone 
awfully mad at her and I think you ought to know about it." I never 
heard any more about it so I can only hope the fellow had second 
thoughts when he sobered up.

Even when you answer in person, folks aren't really listening. The most 
amusing experience was when I answered the phone in the book shop. 
"Hello. This is the Crime Scene," I said. A very earnest young teenager 
began to talk and I soon realized he had dialed the wrong number. Turns 
out he was trying to reach the principal of his high school...in another 
town. He *heard* me say Crime Scene but apparently it didn't register. 
Or else there is something about that school I don't want to know.

Yuppers. Folks just don't listen.

Isn't that right, Chuck? (wiggling eyebrows and grinning)

Hugs, Dee...