A hint: if you're making a phone call, and are wondering whether or not the person on the other end of the line can hear you, please state your name, not just "It's me!" If the person on the other end of the call can't hear you well, "me" is not useful information.

This afternoon, slightly after lunchtime, someone called my number. I'm not sure who it was. At first, I thought it might be one of several friends calling from her car, but after I hung up on whoever, I got no return call. So I doubt it was anyone I knew.

The caller, though, was convinced that she had the right number. The exchange between us went something like this, with a few repetitions omitted:

BECKY: Hello

CALLER: (static)

BECKY: Hello

CALLER: Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me?

BECKY: (shouting) Not really, and I think you have the wrong number.

CALLER: No, it's me! It's me! Can you hear me? Can you hear me?

BECKY: I can't hear you.

At the last point, static started again in earnest, before I could ask for a name to go with the "me." So I hung up. I could have used *69, but I then would have had to look up my friends' cell phone numbers to see if there were any matches. So I decided to wait to see if the caller tried again. No subsequent call to me, so I'm guessing I was right and it was a wrong number.

Or I hung up on the sweepstakes people trying to find my apartment.