A businessman I knew never liked receptionists to ask who was calling when he telephoned another company. He figured the person he wanted to speak to might be conveniently out if he or she knew it was him on the other end of the line. So, to the question, “May I ask who’s calling?”, he used to always answer, “King Farouk.” He claimed his calls were always put through. Who could refuse a call from a king? I have never had the nerve to do what my friend used to do but even today, I bristle when asked for my identity by a receptionist before the call is put through. Even worse is being asked to describe the nature of my call. This used to be especially embarrassing at times when I would call my wife at her workplace. I would identify myself, occasionally, as Mrs. Hagarty’s husband and as for the reason for my call, as a new stay-at-home dad, I would say I wanted to ask her to pick up some diapers on the way home. Which was the nature of a lot of my calls. Diapers to answer the call of nature.
©2020 Jim Hagarty
