I D Love To Talk Really But...

Deceiving long-winded phone friends doesn’t strike Schmidt as mean. “It’s a polite way to get off the phone without seeming rude,” he says. “Everyone recognizes the sound, and, like Pavlov’s dogs, they respond immediately.” His device plugs right into the phone. If you don’t have call waiting, Schmidt says, you simply press Gotta Go and announce when it clicks: “Oh, here’s a call I’ve been waiting for; let’s talk later”-and hang up. If you do have the service, you can enhance the illusion. After initiating Gotta Go’s ersatz click, you can press down the phone’s switch hook to give your caller a moment of dead air-as if you were really putting him or her on hold. A relatively cheap way to be a communications control freak, Gotta Go is available now by mail, and may arrive in some stores before Christmas. Merry manipulation.