Ring, Ring, Why Don't You Give Me A Call?

Today was lunch with the 11:30am crew. Other than A, they're the only people I know who eat lunch that early, which means when I'm too hungry to be able to last until 12, I intrude on their lunch (I do ask if they mind). Despite the fact that Mr Brioche had a terrible lunch yesterday when he decided to "try something new", they both insisted that I do so. So that was today's adventure... Thai chicken on rice. Was actually pretty nice.

That's the picture covered, so at lunch, I mentioned how nobody needs to remember phone numbers anymore. Both Michael and Mr Brioche instantly rattled off their wives' phone numbers. I pointed out that they both just gave me their wives' phone numbers and I could call them right now. They both dared me to, and asked what I would say.

I couldn't really think of anything bad to say, other than their husband had died. Both of them jumped towards the affair angle, saying I could pretend to be someone having an affair with them. I asked the same thing at 440 dinner tonight, and Uni Paul and Nina went the affair angle, too. Although Uni Paul also suggested that I could start describing getting eye surgery in gory detail. That would be enough to ruin someone's day.

So the two points I think to consider are: 1) your call has to be believable. I could have called and said, " died in an accident." but as soon as he got home, they would know it wasn't true. 2) the other person can just hang up. If you start describing eye surgery, the other person can hang up on you.

My first thought was you could say something along the lines of, "You should feel bad for what you did." The idea being that everyone has done something they feel bad about, Though Michael, and everyone at the 440 dinner didn't seem to agree, so that one is probably not a good choice.

MrBrioche said the worst thing he could hear is someone calling saying one of his kids died. Even if it turned out not to be true, it would ruin the rest of his day.

Uni Paul seemed to think that I'm using this to try and find out people's deep, dark secrets. I am not! I think it's an interesting question to think about. Perhaps it's easier to think about if you flip the question around: what's the worst call you could receive from a stranger? Both Special K and I thought it would be a call with the news that a loved one died. Even if it was untrue, we both have a neurotic personality, so we dread that kind of thing all the time.

Does this question provide perspective on someone's personality? I imagine for some people, it would be being told they were fired, or that their house had burned down. You get to see what someone truly values. What kind of phone call would cause you pain?

I should point out that I had never intended to call anybody! I didn't even catch either of the phone numbers, as it was just a mumble of numbers. And even if I did, I wouldn't do it! I'm not evil, geez!