Benefits and Pitfalls of Answering Machines

Many of us in Los Angeles don’t have a wife, kids, roommates or a dog running to the phone each time it rings. If I didn’t have this personal secretary--the answer machine--ready to blink its light for me, I could not balance the PR career, the daily commute twice through L.A. aerospace traffic, out-of-state travel for work and good friends.

As the old song goes, when me and my shadow climb the stair to see no one there, a blinking red light signals me that someone actually was.

JOAN M. STEWART

Manhattan Beach