If the above sign were installed at Buzzy’s it’d be pretty boring – and quiet – to say the least. On the other hand it’s funny the number of people who come in Buzzy’s and ask about the following sign that he used to have displayed re: wife or girlfriend calls.
I think the genesis of the sign stemmed from the fact that Buzzy always did have a “hangup” about answering the phone. He’d let it ring several times before he’d pick up and if he wasn’t in the mood wouldn’t pickup at all. (God knows how he would have reacted had he had today’s caller id feature – he may never have answered any phone calls!) When he did answer the phone it was always with that bored and drawn out “Hello” which told you immediately that you’d just interrupted him and he really didn’t feel like answering but had done so anyway. Needless to say, all phone conversations with Buzzy were short ones.
The wife/girlfriend sign then was just another means for Buzzy to minimize the number of phone calls he’d have to answer. However, he once told me that there was another, more economically-based reason why he had put up the sign: as soon as the wife/girlfriend called, the guy taking the call would then have to leave and thereby reduced beer sales by one. Buzzy wasn’t going to let that trend occur anymore than it had to. Thus the Buzzy rule came to be – you might have to leave following the phone call from your honey, but it was going to cost you a round to do so!