In Which I Am a Comedy of Errors.

So last night my sister calls, and I discover that my new cordless phone isn't working. But the cordless is the only phone upstairs, and I'm working on a project up there involving lots of little pieces I don't want to move. So, leaving my sister waiting on the line, I bring up another phone from downstairs and plug it into the jack I normally use for the cordless.

The phone from downstairs is a beautiful old red rotary. I love it, but the cord isn't very long, and the heavy receiver keeps slipping out from between my ear and shoulder. This is not conducive to projects involving scissors, paper, and glue. After about a half-hour of chatting, I decide that the cordless was probably just seated wrong in the cradle and needed some time to recharge. Maybe it's even recharged by now. I pick it up and press TALK. The phone doesn't die immediately, so I give it a "Hello? Hello?"

Silence. "I guess it's still not working," I tell my sister, via the other receiver.

"No, I could hear you," she says.

"Uh, I think that's because I still had this phone kinda close to my face. Here, I'll cover up the mouthpiece." I cup my hand over it, then hit TALK again on the cordless. "Hello? Hello?" Returning to the red phone, I ask, "How about then? Could you hear me then?"

"Nope."

"See? Not working."

Hours later, when I take the red phone back downstairs, I realize that the cordless could possibly have failed the "Hello" tests because it wasn't plugged into the phone jack anymore.