From Mindspillage

This was my old voicemail message in undergrad:

"Hi, you've reached Kat. Actually, since you're hearing this prerecorded message, you *haven't* reached Kat. Which is alright, because if she had answered, it would be rather silly just to leave a message and hang up—which is what you should do right now."

I posted it to my old blog, which led a commenter to point out a neat paper by Alan Sidelle in the Canadian Journal of Philosophy, "The Answering Machine Paradox," (1991, pages 525-539)—basically, an extended rumination on recorded messages about time.

It has nothing to do with the song "Voicemail", by Caithlin de Marrais (formerly of Rainer Maria), and the best song on her album My Magic City.