Why is it that when someone dials the wrong number they assume that the person who answers is the one who is in the wrong?
A woman just called my cell and asked for someone named Debbie. I said, “Sorry, you must have dialed the wrong number.”
“But do you know Debbie?” she asks.
“Er… no, you must have misdialed.”
“Debbie isn’t there?”
Right.
Of course, not everyone reacts this way. Some callers realize they made a mistake, apologize, and hang up, but so many seem to keep trying to make some sort of magic happen. Maybe they think that if they ask hard enough the person they are trying to reach will come to the phone.
marginalia and such 