You’ve Got Voice Mail May 20, 2010March 17, 2017 EAT LESS MEAT Manish Bhatia: “I read a lot about the actions that we all need to take to reduce the impact of global warming (and avoid it – if we are not already too late!). You have advocated efficient light bulbs, solar energy, hypermiling, and myriad other things. The one thing I don’t remember you advocating is going vegetarian. There are countless articles on the internet about the high carbon footprint related to eating meat (like this one). Hope to hear you talk about this too.” ☞ Here, here! It’s amazing the impact of a hamburger on our environment. (And so, with Memorial Day barbecues around the corner, I suppose I should reprise the Andy Burger, with serious apologies for naming it after myself. A quick search of the archives did not return any hits, but I’m almost sure I’ve told you before, because it’s such a staple. In any event, here it is. You walk up to the burger-flipper, who I assume is your brother-in-law, and ask him to toast your bun on the grill, so it picks up some of the taste and smell and greasy residue of the prior burgers – and hold the burger. You then add lettuce and tomato, pickle chips if available, and tons of ketchup – and that’s it. Mmmm, mmmm! It contains no burger, yet has the burger smell and taste from the grill, and all the taste of the ketchup, which is, let’s be honest, the whole point of the burger in the first place.) THE SIXTH OF MARC’S 12 MOST USEFUL THINGS So far, I’ve given you the first through fifth (well, Marc has given them to us). And at the end of this series, I’ll give you the link to all 12. But for now . . . 6. Transform voicemail. PhoneTag will send you very accurate transcriptions of all your voicemails. At $30 per month it is more expensive than the free Google Voice (which also does transcriptions), but it’s far more accurate since it uses human transcribers. PhoneTag saves me a lot of time; it is handy in situations when you can’t check your voicemail (for instance, when you’re in a meeting). Thanks to PhoneTag, I always know right away whether a call is important or not. It creates more peace of mind, which is priceless. PhoneTag, $29.95 per month for unlimited messages.