>My solution once was a rather... unorthodox answering machine message:
>
><ungodly evil sounding voice from some video game or another>"Who the
>hell are you?"
>
>If they didn't know me personally, they hung up.
>
>-={(Astynax)}=-
>"Darkness beyond Twilight"

Heh... yeah, that sounds rather, um, unorthodox. I'm currently using something a bit more orthodox (yet still well outside the proscribed boundaries of normality):

"Hello? <3 second pause> I can't come to the phone right now....."

You wouldn't believe how many people end up leaving messages consisting of them trying to start a conversation with my machine. :)

--
Brian Bassett
"That which does not kill us merely
postpones the inevitable."