Answering Machines and Their Uses

Answering machines are for when one can't, or won't, answer the phone. They take a message from an incoming caller. That's it. An answering machine is not a vehicle for comedy. There are people in the world who are very well paid to be funny, and I imagine they do not have the bad taste to record a sketch and then not answer the phone so people can hear how funny they are. Also, an answering machine is not a venue to showcase the tooth-grating pitch and pronunciation of children. Some folks think it's cute that their offspring can talk. It's not. People have been talking for millennia. The puling of your brat does not impress.

Those are my two main complaints about answering machines. Hear me, world, and change!