Telemarketers beware!
Have You Ever Been Hornswoggled?
The man who called me on the phone sounded friendly, maybe too much so. It was the old, “Hi, Stephen, how you doin’? How’s everything in Idaho? The weather treatin’ you and the ranchers right? Know you aren’t thinkin’ about the busy fall yet, but I ran across a deal and you came to mind. Got a minute to hear about a truly great bargain?”
I took a breath and jumped right in. “I am rather tied up. Let’s get right to it. What are you selling?”
“Oh, well,” he stammered, as though I threw him off script. “Can I call back at a more convenient time?”
“I’ll be busy then too,” I insisted.
He finally admitted he felt sure I needed his air compressor. I asked about the price and quality. Then I discovered he worked for a telemarketing company. I explained that a) I had no use for an air compressor, and b) I never buy anything on the phone. As a side note, a week later I noticed the same product at a warehouse store for $150 cheaper than the guy on the phone quoted. That is, if you add up the installment payments he emphasized.
He had the nerve to try to get me hornswoggled.
What does it mean?
This great Old West term hornswoggled nowadays means to attempt to hoax or swindle someone. But it originates with cowboys. A steer after its been roped dodges and wriggles to attempt to toss off the loop thrown by the cowboy. The critter hornswoggles every time it escapes. A beast swindles the cowpuncher.
In the Bible’s warning against moral laxity (1 Corinthians 6:10), swindlers rate a prominent position on the list. To swindle means to misrepresent the truth, to outright lie, in order to take advantage of folks.
With time and experience, we learn to sense a hornswoggle a city block or country mile away. Better to detect the tendency in ourselves, when we bend the truth to escape some commitment … to our boss, our family, our friends, ourselves, or even God.
Stephen Bly
Copyright©1993,2010
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Cowboy For A Rainy Afternoon
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A ’49 Plymouth, a 10-year-old boy, an open trunk, and six old cowboys deal with a lady in distress. All the fixings for an adventure on a rainy afternoon in 1954 Albuquerque. Maybe you weren’t born more than 100 years too late.
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Stephen was right on target, as usual. We as Christians abhor lying, but often stretch or twist the truth to avoid undesirable people or circumstances. Are we not guilty of hornswoggling others?
Mark: Thanks much for taking the time to comment! Greatly appreciated! Blessings, Janet