Auf Deutsch?

Now THAT'S good!

We've been completely and utterly inundated by phone calls the last few weeks, all from presidential candidate's supporters. I mean, seriously, we're getting a phone call every five minutes now. We're timing them like contractions to see when the caucuses will end.

For a while my beloved Viennese Snickerdoodle Dagmar was answering the phone, saying "Richardson" and hanging up again without even waiting to see who was calling. "The first question dey ask is alvays 'do you know who you're going to support?' I figger I'll save them de hassle."

A few days ago, however, she switched tactics and started answering the phone in German, generally with a happy little yodel tossed in for good measure. Most times the staffer on the other end would simply get frustrated, say something that (hopefully) sounded polite, and hang up. Most times.

A few days ago I heard the now-familiar "Hallo... Nein, Ich spreche keine English. Sprechen Sie Deutsch, bitte?" I smiled to myself, knowing that some poor schmuck on the other end of the line was frantically wondering how to handle this gracefully... Then I heard, "HA! You have MY vote!" Then the conversation continued for a few moments auf Deutsch. A few minutes later she peeked her head around. "Vell, I'll be darned," she said. "Richardson's people speak German!"