Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for June 10, 1993
Transcript:
Mom: I think we should get an answering machine. Dad: Ugh. I don't. If you have a machine, you feel obligated to return a bunch of calls you'd rather not have received in the first place. Without a machine, you can just let the phone ring, and eventually the caller gives up and you don't have to talk to him. Mom: That wasn't quite my point. Dad: That's the problem at work. The secretaries won't ignore the phone, so I'm always talking to people.
I have an answering machine and I do not feel “obligated” to return ANY calls, Dad. In fact, the device screens my calls.