Pick up the #@&* phone!

You know what it's like. You are sitting at your computer in the office, concentrating on the words you have written. Your story is just not coming together. You can't find the right words. It's just not flowing in the poetic form you envision and that telephone won't stop ringing!
Somebody, pick up the phone!
This tip comes from Bob Schieffer of CBS News.
He tells the story of working in a Fort Worth, Texas, newspaper on the afternoon President John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas.
He answered one of those ringing phones to hear a polite lady on the other end ask for a ride.
This isn't a taxi service, ma'am. The President of the United States has been shot. We're a newspaper!
"I know. I think my son shot him."
The sweet little old lady on the other end of the phone line was the mother of Lee Harvey Oswald and because Schieffer picked up the phone, he was able to pick her up and get an exclusive interview while he drove her across town.
As I wrote in an earlier column, we need to get out of the office, go see people and not rely on our telephones. But the result of going to see people is that quite often they call us!
I am not a fan of letting voice mail answer the office phone.
My managing editor can press a button and see who is calling, thanks to caller ID, but I'm old school. When the phone rings, I want to answer it. It might be someone like Mrs. Oswald and I may not get a second chance at the story.