Baldo by Hector D. Cantú and Carlos Castellanos for December 02, 2022

Know of anyone who uses electric and nothing but electric getting a call from the gas company?

Ah, but she sometimes does foolish things.

I used to get phone calls claimed to be from Internal Revenue and I still get phone calls staying the warrenty has expired on my second hand 19 year old car.

Good for you, Tia

Those of us who don’t speak Spanish would love the translation. Yes, I get it, but would love the literal definition when there is a Spanish word or slang, especially like in this case.

She must not have a phone that identifies who’s calling. I never answer it unless it’s someone I know. If it’s important, they’ll leave a message.

What is a “Tonta”?

I normally don’t answer a call from anyone not in my contact list, but I’ve been dealing with health issues this year and a lot of doctor offices calls, so I have to pick them up. However, I do use the opportunity to vent some aggravation when it turns out to be a scammer. Turns the air blue for a bit, but I feel better.

Muy bien hecho!

My electric utility calls to tell me that I can save some percentage of my bill if I apply. I get this on my answering machine. Call the electric company and they say it’s a scam and give me a fraud reporting number to call and report it.

I wait for 5 rings and most times they have hung up. If they do answer I respond in German and they hang up. One of these days I going to get someone that does and then I’ll switch to Farsi.

I don’t know Spanish. Is “tonta” a feminine form? Does that make “tonto” a masculine form? If so, what does that say about the Lone Ranger’s faithful companion? OK, you can all yell at me now.

Had that happen to me. Lived in an all-electric apartment, got a call from the “gas company” saying I was going to be cut off for nonpayment. Kept stringing the jerk along by laughing about it, he actually got madder and madder as he threatened to ruin my credit, have me arrested for felony grand theft, etc. I let him go for about 10 minutes before I told him that he made a critical mistake by spamming an all-electric household on the do-not-call list and that he would be reported and can expect a minimum $11,000 fine (that’s what it was at the time). I also told him I would be reporting him to the real gas company at which point he whined, “you can’t do that, I’m with the gas company.” To which I replied, “sucks to be you, pal,” and hung up.

She wasn’t born yesterday

How do you like that? An older person who is on to scams!

Ha ha, yes, that’s what they’re asking.

what’s a tonta?

If you put in your credit card info then they verified that you are.

I get a call every week starting, “Thanks for being a Colorado Electric customer!” I always hang up before it gets any farther, though co-workers tell me it’s a come-on for solar installation. If they are pretending to be a utility company, that’s all I need to know.

I’ve known what Tonto means for several decades, but for some reason I was thinking Tonta must be cognate with French Tante, i.e. an idiomatic synonym for Tia: “Of course she’s an aunt, but what’s the point of mentioning that?” I’d like to blame too many consecutive days of insufficient sleep, but Tontaria (mentioned by GaryCooper elsewhere in the comments) may be a more plausible explanation.

Tia Carmen is not as silly as sha acts sometimes.

Good for you, Tia!!

Tonto’s wife?

Oh, man, I want to go around finding those people and giving them a big boot to the booty. I can only hope they are extremely desperate to resort to such means.

In Spanish. In Yiddish it is an aunt. I had a number of quite intelligents Tontas.