Byzantium's Shores: chronicling the misadventures of an overalls-clad hippie

A lot of press is being given to the new "National Do-Not-Call List" which just started up. I like the idea of the list, but I haven't signed up, because I came up with a simpler way of evading marketing calls a while back: I simply stopped answering the phone. That's right, I never answer it. Period. I let the machine (or my handy-dandy Internet answering service) handle every incoming call. If a marketer calls and gets a machine, they won't leave a message; and if it's the autodialer, the machine will generally stop recording before the actual marketer comes on the line.

Even on the rare occasions when I do slip and answer the phone, thus encountering a telemarketer, I simply hang up immediately. I don't play any games with the poor slob on the other end of the line, nor do I demand to be placed on their do-not-call list. I just remind myself not to answer the phone. Works for me. (But then, I hate phones. I've always hated phones. The only person in the world I don't hate talking to on the phone is my wife. And probably my daughter, I suppose, but I've never tried and I'm a bit unwilling to tempt fate on that score. So, my solution might not work for everyone, but once I realized that there's no law -- physical, moral, or otherwise -- requiring me to come running every time some electronic gizmo in my home makes a "ringing" noise, life got a whole lot simpler.)