for those of you who are too young to remember telephones made out of Bakelite, this is going to take a bit of understanding but............
in 1988 I received a phone call from the first Mrs DZ to say that she was at a friends and would stay there for tea. That was fine. But, when the conversation ended, she didn't put down the phone. Now....in the olden days if you rang somebody and didn't put down the phone the person you rang couldn't make a call. So you would be running up a bill, and the person you called would be cheesed off because (in this case) he, or rather I, couldn't call to change the babysitting arrangements.
Cue much calling down the phone. But the speakers on old phones weren't so good - so I couldn't attract their attention. When I stopped calling, and listened to see if they were still about I heard a bunch of stuff I clearly wasn't meant to hear.
At the time it was shocking. Looking back, in the light of the way things have turned out for me, it's a complete hoot - in fact I confess I'm sufficiently unkind a person to relish certain ironies in a very big way. But (and I think this shines through some of the posts above) the lack of honesty left a sour taste.