Most of the time I don't answer the telephone if I don't recognize the name or number of the caller. There are times, however, when someone I know is in an unfamiliar place, or we're expecting results of something, you know, that kind of thing, where I pick up the phone without knowing who is calling.
Not once, not twice, but three times in the past month I've interrupted an important task to find a solicitor on the line, reading at high speed from a preprinted script. Although we are on the no-call list, politicians and charities are exempt from the ban. These three people have all had the same pitch: They don't want any money from me. What they want is to send me a bunch of envelopes for me to address and send to my neighbors to ask them to send money to their cause. The hand-addressed envelope and personally signed pitch would lead the recipient to believe I am convinced of the worthiness of the cause and have probably donated heavily myself.
I don't listen to these callers for very long, although at the rate they read or recite their pitches, it is difficult to find a spot to politely interrupt; nonetheless, they all sound remarkably the same, leading me to think they are all employed by some outfit that is an umbrella organization over these charities.
And the charities themselves are suspect. Some I've never heard of. They are probably representative of the type of cause where 94% of the money raised goes to "administrative costs" and a whopping 6% actually goes to the needy individuals they purport to represent. Much of said administrative cost, I imagine, goes to cover the salaries of the callers.
And another thing: In the nearly twelve years we've been in our home, I've not even one time received such an envelope from one of my neighbors either in the mail or in the door. Our block just doesn't go in for mutual harassment.
Oh, Moooooo! Go Away!
Cranky Old Woman, Near Philadelphia
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