Handling telemarketers

Telemarketers are annoying. Thank the Lord for caller ID. But what is the best way to handle them? Many of you may recall the bit that Seinfeld has about telemarketers. It showed up in one of the earlier episodes of his show. Here's the clip.



But yesterday, we found a good second option. It requires a 2-year-old whose language skills are good but not great and who hasn't mastered volume control -- even within the same word. And a parent in the background spoon-feeding words the kid knows. Here's how our call went yesterday.

Jen noticed the "out of area" notice on the caller ID -- dead giveaway for the telemarketer. So she handed the phone to Keegan after pressing the "talk" button.

Jen: Say hello.

K-man: Hello HEY!!

[Brief silence]

Jen: Say marshmallow.

K-Man: Marce-YALLOW!

[another beat]

K-Man: Bye-BYE!

It's been a while since we laughed that hard! Can't wait to spring him on some more unsuspecting souls. If they want to try and out-flank the Do Not Call registry, we'll be ready for them.