Talking to yourself, or the art of inter-NPC interaction Options

[Backgammon]

How do you handle 2 NPCs talking to each other? I for one feel completely ridiculous having a conversation between 2 NPCs, and even with some voice changes, it tends to confuse the players "Wait, Trix said that or Fingers did?".

I try to simply avoid the situation, but when I can't, I often simply give a resumé of the conversation, something like "they argue for a few minutes over the course to take. The main points of contention seem to be over the fact the highway will be too dangerous at this time of night" etc., in order to try to give the PCs a chance to put in their word over in the conversation (i.e. above example, they could suggest an alternate route).

But sometimes discussions are just for flavour, so giving a resumé doesn't work so well. I've *seriously* considered using sock-puppets to make it simple to see who's talking, but unfortunatly the mere idea of that had my players rolling on the floor in laughter (rightfuly so, most likely...). That leaves less comical derivatives of such a technique, like discreetly raising a little paper sign with the NPC's name when he's the one speaking, etc.

Anyway, just want to know how everyone handles this.