Talk to a Telemarketer Day

The accompanying Dustin comic, by Steve Kelley and Jeff Parker (from April 17, 2012), seems particularly appropriate to today's featured observance, Talk to a Telemarketer Day.

Have a couple of belts on your way home tonight or pour yourself a snifter when you get in the door. The phone will ring when you're about ready to sit down to dinner, just like always, but you'll have that liquid courage fueling you. Pick up the phone. Make small talk. Ask about the caller's family. Just keep the call going as long as possible. If (and the odds strongly favor this) your annoying caller has a political pitch, ask if he or she can't help you unravel the difference between the Socialist Workers' and Socialist Labor Parties. He or she doesn't know? Well can your caller help you explain how syndicalism differs from anarchism?

There are other things to observe today, arguably.

Did you know that the very first parking meter was installed on this day in 1935 -- in Oklahoma City?

Shoeless Joe Jackson was born on this date in 1888.

Orville Redenbacher was born on this day in 1907.

The schism between Rome and Constantinople (between Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy) is generally considered to have begun on this date in 1054.

And there are a great many sources claiming today is World Snake Day. Hey... here's an idea to tie things together: Maybe you can speak in Parseltongue when the telemarketer calls tonight....