They're everywhere!
Make sure you read the first comment posted on today's blog entry (below).
The kvetching in the third item of today's column -- by the host of a North Baltimore restaurant who is just so annoyed at how customers use their cell phones -- reminds me of something that happened in another north-side restaurant a few years ago:
Four friends and I were in the nice Vietnamese restaurant across from the
Senator Theatre. We were doing what Ray Oldenburg, the sociologist and author of The Great Good Place, encourages: meeting friends, talking, kidding, kibitzing, laughing. There's
nothing like conversation with your pals in a warm neighborhood place to get
you through a long, wet, frigid winter.
Humans have a powerful need to associate with one another - not that you
need a sociologist to tell you that.
But these days, e-mail, instant messages and cell phone chatter pass for
what used to be eyeball-to-eyeball conversation in corner taverns, coffee
shops and diners.
Yes, we're all busy. So I cherish opportunities to actually get with my
buds. And there we were, experiencing real-life human
interaction, at a table by the window on a cold day in the city. We were
catching up, kidding, kibitzing.
One of my friends told a joke.
And that prompted loud laughter. And that prompted a young woman to hurry
to our table to tell us to hold the noise down, because she was trying to talk
on her cell phone. Then she scurried back to her table, where she ate her
lunch alone while engaging in a long conversation on her wireless.
Did you get that? Restaurant. Friends talking. Friends laughing. "Could you
please hold it down, you guys? I'm on my cell!"
We all looked at each other in stunned silence. It was as if we had
unknowingly violated some new code of conduct or local ordinance. We had never
seen or heard this animal, Cellaphonus malus (bad-mannered cell phone user) -
the one who presumes a right to quiet in a public place. In the lull, my
friends and I could hear this new species chewing food and yapping on the
phone, foraging in its lonely, virtual wilderness. One feared for the future:
Certainly, there must be more of them.
Comments
MORE of them? Dan, they're EVERYwhere! On my daily three-block walk to and from work, the person who DOESN'T have a cell phone clamped to an ear is the oddity. And the sniglets of conversation that I hear are purest drivel!! The poor sods are bored, so they talk on the phone while they walk. But what really burns my toast is the fools at the wheel of SUVs the size of a small building, yakking on a phone, not paying the least attention to their surroundings. These creatures are dangerous, and something needs to be done about them! [deep breath] Thanks for letting me rant...I feel better now.
Posted by: Dottie | February 28, 2008 9:18 AM
I don't think that I have any friends who would demonstrate the restraint of your group. Our Friday Night Feedbag Friends select a different restaurant each week. If we were asked to be quiet, a concept that does not strain the imagination, this group of four to eight couples, none born after 1960, would probably exchange glances and break into uncontrolled, raucous laughter, followed by polite apologies and suggestions that the member of the species "Rudous Clellophonus" find a private place for a private conversation.
On your first topic, the Maryland General Assembly's collective attitude regarding campaign finance: leaving money on the table during a special session, there have been two in the last three years, offends their sensibilities. They are favorable to public financing of campaigns, that is where you and I are compelled to contribute to the campaigns of people we don't want to support.
Opposing the former and supporting the latter have one thing in common. Each serves as an incumbent protection scheme. In fact, in the last one-hundred years, there has not been a bill to reform political campaign finance that was not an incumbent protection act.
There are better ways to reform political campaigns. A great topic for another day.
Posted by: Bruce Robinson | February 28, 2008 10:19 AM
The idea that people should cultivate "inner lives" is beyond quaint anymore. The people who worry me are the folks--usually guys--who are talking loudly on their phones around strangers in public in an apparent (and lame) attempt to impress these other people that they have friends. Really sad.
Posted by: Biff Tubesock | February 28, 2008 10:20 AM
Dan, I can only hope that you and your buds made twice as much noise after her self-absorbed request.
Posted by: Kathy | February 28, 2008 10:27 AM
dan, haven't you heard? now that they have successfully banned smoking in public spaces, they are now going to go after banning "joking with your buds."
Posted by: johnny dollar | February 28, 2008 12:11 PM
saw it yesterday, driving on the beltway, I was in the lane next to the fast lane. Traffic was slowing around I-70 (typical) left lane was stopped, saw the last car get rear ended by a gold car...you guessed it, driver of the offending car was talking on her cell phone. I was so angry, you would have thought that I were the one that was rear ended. What are people thinking? I hope a law is passed, immagine the revenue the state could raise. I think it should be considered reckless driving.
Posted by: Sherry | March 7, 2008 7:08 AM