CRT magnet - with another "twist". Real phone can't hear.
In the days before LCD screens, people at Motorola would take a strong magnet and place it at certain positions by the CRT, diverting the beams into something other than desired.
They would call the help desk to report the problem and if you were lucky you could sneak in there and remove the magnet before the help desk showed up.
You answering the phone and pretending to not hear the other person is timely because two nights ago my son started a Facetime (Apple's Skype) with me. I answered it on my iPod (touch) and he could hear me, but I could not hear him. So I called him with my Mac (Lion has Facetime too), and he could hear me, but I couldn't hear him. Two devices, same problem. I rebooted my cable modem, router and Mac and it still didn't work. It must be on his end. So we kept Facetime open so we could see each other and he called the house phone with his cell phone. AND I STILL COULDN'T HEAR HIM! I called his cell with the house phone and we talked with telephony and watched via iPod.
We never found the problem, but I suspect it's his end.
