Just now, as we’re having dinner, the phone rings. It’s a telesales person for the orchestra, trying to push further tickets. I asked him whether my wife gave them express permission to be called. His answer was “not necessarily”.

I’m going to guess that those who do the calling don’t care, but I agree with this. Getting phone solicitation from a performing group after buying tickets to something is terribly annoying.

Fortunately, the last time San Francisco Opera called me for another contribution I told them that I would donate once a year but no more. The woman I spoke with said she’d note that on her card and I’ve not received a call since. Nice.

I’m all for contributing to things I like to support. I just don’t want to be hounded. I wish all charitable groups had a box we could check that would allow us to choose to be notified only by email (no paper!), and another to ask that we only be contacted once per year. That would be nicer still.