Luke fluke

Good telephone manners at a large provincial university that must remain nameless to protect the guilty. An innocent telephone call from The THES to an academic asking after some of his excellent research was met by: "Bugger off, Luke. Haven't got time for this nonsense." It turned out that the academic believed the reporter was a friend of his who has a penchant for spoof telephone calls.

All attempts to persuade him that a genuine THES reporter was on the line failed. "Oh right then. What's your email address?" the researcher asked. The reporter reeled the address off. Silence followed, and five seconds later the researcher cried out: "That's a bloody nice touch Luke!" The misunderstanding was eventually cleared up, the academic expressing deep apology: "You sound so much like Luke I can't believe it. The two of you must have been separated at birth."