TOM BLUMER: Pick Up the Darned Phone. Blumer has a point. Nothing annoys me more than having to wade through a 6-deep voice-activated phone tree in order to get a question answered that I know is not within the realm of the phone tree's list of frequently asked questions. There are more than a few businesses that I simply refuse to patronize further because of their answering service.

On the other hand, I now refuse to answer my own telephone unless I recognize the caller on the caller ID function. The reason is simple - about 90% of the calls to our home are auto-dialed from a godawful number of organizations begging for money.