One night while I [...] We're working on some related thoughts.]]> Have you ever wished you could rewind a cell phone conversation to just before the point where you stick your foot in your mouth? I have, more than once. When I was stationed in 29 Palms California in the Marines, a thousand years ago, I made a top notch phone blunder.

One night while I was on barracks duty I answered the phone to the voice of a young lady who was looking for a Marine who lived in the barracks. Earlier that evening the Marine had stopped in and left a message that if Ulanda called, tell her he’d call her back when he returned to the barracks.

Now it wasn’t my responsibility to play answering machine, but barracks duty lasts all night and when you don’t have anything else to do in the middle of the desert, you try to be as helpful as you can be. So when this young lady called asking for the Marine, I naturally assumed she was Ulanda. So, I said, “Is this Ulanda?” It was, in no uncertain terms, NOT Ulanda. Never again did I ask a woman if she was some other woman.

So when I saw this phone etiquette video, I could certainly relate to his pain.

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