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The tasks are easy, dealing with the public is anything but.
One day, the phone rang, and a very polite young man was on the other end. I took his name and address, and then asked what his complaint was, assuming that his paper hadn't been delivered yet or such. He sounded awfully contrite and apologetic when he told me his complaint.
Him: There's no Dear Abby [an advice columnist] in the paper.
Me: (long pause) I'm sorry, what?
Him: There's no Dear Abby column in today's paper.
Me: (long pause) Okay. And?
Him: That's the only reason I take this paper, is because of the Dear Abby column.
Me: (wondering if somebody is having some fun at my expense) So your complaint is....?
Him: Right, there's no Dear Abby...
Me: ...in today's paper, right.
Him: Right. I take this paper only for the Dear Abby column.
Me: (an avid reader who read the paper from first page to the last) So, the news....?
Him: I get that from larger papers.
Me: (another long pause) All right, I'll fill that out and pass that on.
And so I did. I kept a close eye on the paper for the next several weeks, and darned if the Dear Abby column ran every danged day.
I wish I was making this up.