When one of the Men called, and I said hello, and he dropped into his whisper to call me a cunt of whatever variety, I would pretend that I couldn’t hear: “I’m sorry, can you speak up?” Typically what would happen is that the guy would repeat, confused, whatever he’d said a little more loudly, and while I could hear him fine, I would say, equally politely, betraying no knowledge of the nature of the call, “I’m sorry, it’s not a great connection, can you be a little louder?” And I’d just keep doing this, keep politely asking the loser to speak up.
