The King On Line One

By Jim Hagarty
1987
A rural plain-spoken, no-nonsense 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.

Author: Jim Hagarty

I am a 72-year-old retired journalist, busy recovering from a lifelong career as an unretired journalist. This year marks a half century of my scratching out little fables about life. My interests include genealogy, humour and music. I live in a little blue shack in Canada and spend most of my time trying to stay out of trouble. I am not that good at it. I also spent years teaching journalism. Poor state of journalism today: My fault. I have a family I don't deserve, a dog that adores me, and two cars the junk yard refuses to accept. My prized possessions include my old guitar and a razor my Dad gave me when I was 14 and which I still use when I bother to shave. Oh, and my great-great-grandfather's blackthorn stick he brought from Ireland in the 1850s. I have only one opinion but it is a good one: People take too many showers.