I know people who’ve pretended to get a phone call so that they could duck out of a boring meeting, or even a boring date. (“Hold on, my phone’s buzzing … oh, sorry, I just have to take this.”) But now customers of Virgin Mobile can get something even better: An actual phone call. They’ve introduced “Rescue Ring” service; for 25 cents, you can preprogram a call to arrive at a time you pick. As the Virgin Mobile web-site details it:

We’ve all been there. Stuck in a nightmare blind date, meeting, class, or conversation with no way out. We’ve got your back. Just set up a Rescue Ring for a pre-determined time and your phone will ring. Pretend to have a conversation and take it from there.