“Hello! Who’s there?”

Much has been written regarding the sharp decline in the art of writing notes in this age of text messages, email, Facebook and Twitter. Recently, I realized another decline in the art of communication – telephone etiquette.

Obviously, I date myself by evening bringing up the subject.  When we were younger, we were taught how to properly make a telephone call, answer the phone, and so on. The parents of one of my friends were so strict about the proper way to answer the phone in their house that she persists with it today.

“Hello, Smith residence, this is Mary speaking.”

And she is single – the only person living there!

This came up when we recently received a phone call from one of our 11-year old relatives.

“Hello”

Silence….finally “Hi”

“Hello. Who is this?”

Silence…finally, in a baby-like voice “This is Mallory!”

“Hi, Mallory. What can I do for you today?”

More silence….finally, “Oh, nuthin.”

And so it went on. Like trying to dig a splinter out of my thumb.

When I mentioned this to Mrs. Poolman, she said, “Why are you surprised? Have you talked with her parents lately? Who do you think is supposed to teach her?”

I realized that Mrs. P was right. We have received frequent calls from relatives in their 20s who call and simply say, “Hey!” and apparently wait for the recipient of the call to guess who they are and why they are calling.

You would think someone of our generation (50s) would know better, but they don’t. We have several friends who almost never identify themselves when they call. And some of them show annoyance when I ask, “And who is calling, please?”

I would recognize the voices of Mrs. Poolman, my two children and my father. After that, it’s a crap shoot. Caller ID works some of the time. I only look at it part of the time anyway. And if just shows a number and not a name, it’s not much help.

That last part is courtesy of the contact list built into my cell phone. I don’t even know Mrs. P’s cell number without looking it up. All I know is that it’s in my cell phone contact list under “Mrs. Poolman.

Recently, I received a call from the middle of my three sisters,  Margaret. I recognized her voice, but I thought I’d “zing” here anway.”

Margaret: “Hi Poolman! This is your favorite sister.”

Me: “Oh, hi, Kathy! I’m glad you called. I really want to hear more about what you were saying about Margaret yesterday.”

As they say on “The Big Bang Theory”…Bazinga!

And Mrs. Poolman says I still don’t understand why people don’t call me.

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Didn’t we just watch this show?

We probably watch entirely too much TV around our house, and the Monday night CBS sitcom lineup has been one of our favorites.

It has been diminished somewhat by the move of both The Big Bang Theory and Rules of Engagement to Thursday night.

Last night CBS premiered a new sitcom in the 8:30 (Eastern) slot previously occupied by Rules of Engagement.

Mad Love immediately followed How I Met Your Mother, and if I hadn’t been paying close attention, I would have thought it was one continuous program. CBS is rather blatantly making a near carbon copy of How I Met Your Mother. I can’t say that I blame them — Mother has been a ratings success — but you’d think there were some writers and producers out there with a little more originality.

Mad Love deals with a group of young, attractive, professionals, living in Manhattan and falling in and out of love. Sounds exactly like the show that’s on immediately before it. 

One of the two female leads in Mad Love, Sarah Chalke, was actually a multi-episode guest star in How I Met Your Mother.

Roseanne's little girl, all grown up -- Sarah Chalke

She was the long-term love interest of Mother’s Ted, played by Josh Radnor.

By the way, her love interest in Mad Love is Jason Biggs, who could be Radnor’s brother.

Mad Love's Jason Biggs

How I Met Your Mother's Josh Radnor

Coincidence? Yeah, right.