[franksolich]

You know, I always wondered about something.

Because I am deaf, the only way I know the telephone is ringing is when a large red light, about 40 kilowatts or something, blinks on-and-off, on-and-off, in the dining room, especially in the darkness of night giving an eerie illumination.

I always wondered if the ringing sound of a telephone was purposely designed to be an irritant, a noise so irritating to hearing people that they MUST drop all, even a pot of boiling water on the head of an infant sitting on the floor, just to answer the thing.

[mollynme]

You can buy phones that allow you to change the ring. Mine chirps like a bird which makes it slightly less commanding.

I use caller ID to screen my calls now that it identifies calls from family in Norway. Up until recently, I had to pick up everything in case the "out of area" IDs might be from them.