Stopping asynchronous speech?

[quixote]

Hi guys,
I'd like to know if there would be a way to halt asynchronous speech. Sometimes I have particularly long-winded speech sequences (for example when I get home and the system announces certain things like the time, how long I've been out, who's home, missed calls, etc.) Occasionally I arrive with a guest and it's rather annoying to have the computer drone on while you try to carry on a conversation with the person that you are arriving with.
It would be great if there was a "shut-up" command that I could use.
Anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance!

[harleydude]

If you cant stop the speech, you should be able to mute it.

[quixote]

There's an idea. Thanks, Rick.
The only problem would be that the system would not know when to unmute it again. I guess it could work as a last resort, though far from ideal.

[harleydude]

Well you could use a timer to have it unmute after a desired time.

[quixote]

To be honest, I was hoping to create a macro that would be triggered by a voice recognition command that would respond with "yes, sir!", or "My appologies," or something like that.