Story of the Day 12/ 8/ 2008

This didn’t’ happen, today.
It happened , last week, but I was short on time, so you are getting it today.
Too bad.

Those people who come and ring the doorbell and knock on your door- selling things-
in my neighborhood, we get quite a few, but they tend to be sellinga very limited variety of things. Lawn mowing services, and magazines.
Every so often, some young man- so far we haven't had a young wamoan do this- comes by with a clipboard and a thick folder, and tells us how they are in this program and they have this goal and as a part of helping them to reach this goal to….they are selling magazines and could we please just look at the list they have.

My answer is always , “no”.
Not always the same , “no.” , though.
My reaction is usually in direct proportion to how aggressive they are.
If I get a young man who is a bit shy, I will explain nicely that we are not interested and wish them a good day.
If they are aggressive, I do what I did with this most recent one. I say, “We do not accept solicitations.”
That usually gets rid of them, unless they are incredibly aggressive, and then I have to up the ante by shutting the door on them and cutting off their shpiel.

However, this time it elicited a very unexpected response.
The young man said, “I am certainly not a solicitor! That is illegal!” And gave me a very upset look.
I thought about saying, “ No, you don’t’ much look like you are bright enough to be a lawyer.” But since he was already stomping off towards the next house….