Does this tick off anyone else?
Perhaps I'm just getting intolerant as I grow older. For some time now, a few years, I've taken offense to those robocalls or stranger calls to my home that start with "Hello Allan." I used to argue with them asking "Do I know you?" and then followup by reminding them that "Mr." is the appropriate salutation between strangers and that using my first name shows disrespect. These days, most recently today, I just hang up.
Am I just getting more sensitive in my older age? Is it just me?
Am I just getting more sensitive in my older age? Is it just me?
infuriating.
My favorite tactic is that if I've already said hello and the called ID says "Blocked", I just remain silent until they speak. If it's someone I know, I'll recognize the voice. If I'm feeling particularly annoyed, I just set the phone down and burn their minutes until they hang up. This one is classic: https://youtu.be/qZYjA8iwbqE
The only meaningful use of the term "Mister" is in the military, where it becomes a derogatory term used to emphasize that the person addressed is of lower rank! Perhaps that's one reason why the term annoys me, but my principal objection is that the term is utterly meaningless -- except perhaps to take note of gender (even when that is completely irrelevant).
I don't particularly like my own first name, but (aside from that) I see no reason to be offended when someone uses it. If my name is being used to confirm identification, then I'd prefer that they used my entire name to do so.
My 2 bits.
However, I have never regarded the use of the (meaningless) "Mr." pseudo-title as some sort of courtesy. I just don't view as a "courtesy" to prefix my last name by such a meaningless "title". (In fact, I'd much rather be addressed rudely by my last name only than to have it prefixed by "Mr.")
Notwithstanding the advisories of Dale Carnegie (who famously insisted that most people consider the most beautiful sound they have ever heard to be their own name!), I am even less impressed by hearing a stranger precede my last name by a superfluous "Mr." than by being addressed only by my first name.
In a public setting I expect and use "Sir" or "Mr. XXX" or "Mrs. XXX" when talking to someone until invited to be more familiar and expect the same.
If a vendor approached me, a stranger, and said Allan I have the greatest and most useful thing for you to buy...My mind snapped shut at Allan - disrespectful and presumptuous.
I notice this behavior of mine more now but can't say when it began.
I have a "no soliciting" sign on my door which, of course, often doesn't work. I still with them good luck with their efforts when I send them on their way.
I did snap back at a religious door-to-door guy years ago. I just said, "No thanks." He had a young trainee with him and the older guy said, "Well, I guess you don't want to be saved today." Without a thought I instantly snapped back, "Who says I need to go to your church to be saved?" Stumped the hell out of him. (The younger guy seemed to be paying attention, too.)
Courtesy costs nothing, but often produces dividends. :)
A funny aphorism... "To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered." Voltaire
Have a great weekend!
O.A.
ll add it to my list. :)
Which is what I wanted all along.
Proper respect is not dead, it is laying in a coma waiting to be revived. I have been to Ukraine and they young stand for the elderly, people with young children, people in a cast on the trains and buses. They make a wide berth of pregnant women, children and elderly while waling as to not bump them. You are NOT out of line. Look up Chad Prather on youtube for down home common sense.
I also used to cross rapiers with them until I realized all they had was a butter knife. Nobody but such callers calls me Herbert. Not even bankers. Just like you, I now hang up. They almost always offer me a service or ask for money. Unless I'm in a mood to amuse myself, the brevity doesn't waste the time I spend doing the myriad things I find enjoyable.
Today I woke up to a 1-800 number call on my Caller ID.
Man says, "Is this David?"
Me dino says, "Yeah."
Man says, "Please help us put Trump in the White House and Hillary in the outhouse. Ha! Ha!" Yes, that laugh sounded as phony as it looks written.
I told him I've been helping Trump out with mailed donations which is the truth.
Man says "We know you've been helping Trump"
I'm thinking a good con artist would say as much as he adds, "With 8 days to go we don't have time to send you mail. So could you help out by donating $200 with a credit card?"
I tell the man I don't like doing that on the phone and I say goodbye.
So was the man a Trumpster or a scamster?
Me dino dunno. Me no have psychic abilities.
Wait until the phone rings once before picking it up. If it stops ringing then the call has been blocked and is gone.
The spammers had the gall to try to get this service banned by Federal legislation.
Reporting the spam often results in their losing their accounts, sometimes before the spam mailing being reported has even completed. Sources that don't deal with the spammers exploiting them (like the spammers' own mail servers) are black-listed and can be easily filtered out.
The spammers always sell each other 'dirty' lists, but when they discover you are reporting them they tend to stop harassing you.
Lately and maybe because I spent years with the cell glued to my ear. I have abandon the phone altogether...don't call me cause I won't answer. I will only talk face to face or read an email from you instead...I am even getting tired with emails... what will I likely dump next? We'll see...
http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobb...
In EMEA people get upset when you do not use Mr... formality and respect. In the US, they get upset when you do use such formal language. In Australia I am not sure if they even have the term of Mister in there vocabulary.
Its an interesting cultural shift.
I cannot say that it bothers me as it does you. I tend to be an informal person more often than not myself so in my vocabulary, Mister is saved for formal settings, and in any others setting it feels stuffy and overbearing to be called Mister or to use the term.
For your personal protection from the nuisance see this subthread; https://www.galtsgulchonline.com/post...
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