I don't fully understand how I get phone calls from people claiming they dialed the wrong number.  I can remember all two times I've done this in my entire life:  Once was last week, when a stupid lady left a mumbling message on my answering machine, causing me to hear her phone number incorrectly; and the other time was when I was 3 and didn't have complete control over my fine motor skills and accidentally pressed two buttons at once.  Other than that, I've been pretty good at dialing phone numbers.  And with the mass adoption of cell phones, people hardly ever dial numbers anymore.  They look through their phone book or sift through their recent calls.  So how do I keep getting calls from people dialing the wrong number?  If I regularly get several per month, that means other people must get around the same amount (I can't possibly be alone in this).  That means there are something like 6 billion wrong numbers called each year around the country (this estimate* doesn't account for international calls).  Good thing I have a cell phone plan that overcharges me for too many minutes.  Otherwise, I'd have to be overcharged even more. 

The other part of this I don't understand is why the people dialing the wrong number treat it like it's my fault.  I got a call at work the other day where a lady said, "Shontell?  Why you do dat?"  I said, "Sorry, I think you have the wrong number".  The lady mumbled something and hung up angrily.  Did I do something wrong?  I guess so.  It's my fault for having a number that so closely resembles Shontell's. 

*Estimate is a fancy word for "total guess" and is usually based on misinformation and false assumptions. #technology