Random Anecdote.

Here's something quick to tide over my silence.

So tonight, after dinner, I take my dishes to the sink. The phone rings and after two rings, I pick up.

"Hello?" I say into the receiver. Silence.

Then, a fog horn toots. I look at the phone in confusion - is this some new dial tone that I don't know of? Nope!

"Hello, this is your captain speaking!" says a nancy-sounding fellow on the other side, who's probably hopped up on Prozac. I start thinking that the expression on my face must be priceless now. The fog horn blasts in the background again, as he continues speaking. "You could win two all-exclusive cruise tickets to the Bahamas if you answer these easy 10 questions -"

"Not with you as the captain, creepo," I say scathingly into the telephone, then I hang up.

That might have been the creepiest automated call I've ever gotten in my life.