Over my dead body will he get a tongue piercing. I can put up with a lot of stuff, but until he turns 18 that kind of mutilation is out of the question. As far as cell phones go, we’ll see. I’m not inclined to hook him up with one, but I’m not the only factor.
In that same vein, have you seen the child cellphones? My God, they’re marketing to juveniles now! When will there ever be an occasion where he is unattended to the point that he needs to use a cellphone to tell me where he is? At that age, never.
I would so forward that one. How about… person keeps answering the phone over, and over, and over, until the phone just keeps ringing and someone pokes him and it turns out he’s been choked to death by a whole bucket of movie popcorn! And nobody saw a thing. I heard it happened at three movie theatres around here alone. :eek:
Helpful, but not curative. Maybe I’ve been going to the wrong movie theater, but my problems have all been people centered, not technology.
The most recent was the family who brought their 4 year old and pre-toddler infant to a 9:15pm screening of Superman. In the first 5 minutes of the movie, the rest of us figured out that the 4 year old didn’t give a damn about the film and wasn’t going to shut up, but 3 adults shepharding her didn’t. And, when the infant eventually got too fussy and had to be taken outside, the 4 year old whailed like screeching tires when mom walked away. And they sat way up in the back corner, so exiting with one kid or the other required stomping along the stairs. Eventually, these exits got so frequent that they didn’t even bother going all the way into the lobby, deciding it was good enough to have the kid chittering like a howler monkey in the screening room’s hallway.
Who by Shiva’s great and magical blue balls takes a 4 year old to see a 2+ hour serious movie past 9pm?
But, the best example are the three folks next to me who would not stop talking the instant Silent Hill started, despite me repeatedly asking them to be quiet. They weren’t whispering. They weren’t talking about the movie.
Who ignors a verbal shushing? Dickweeds who pay $9.50 each to sit in a dark room and have a conversation.
These aren’t kids who just haven’t caught up to society’s politeness standards. These were all adults 25 or 30 or older.
I’m worried that this is a symptom of widespread decaying propriety. Will movie theaters vanish entirely as the environment becomes more and more hostile and the civilized ones retreat to our bigscreens?
Interesting Article: : 10% of kids age 5-7 in Tel Aviv have cell phones (hand-me-downs from their parents) and 30% of parents with kids in kindergarden feel the need to provide their kids with phones.
Pretty understandable, given the unrest in that part of the world, but clearly an idea that will spred.
Well I don’t feel so bad now. I did kind of the same thing to a guy who was sitting about three rows behind me.
Dudes phone rings, he answers it, me being the nice guy I am let this conversation go on for about a full minute. I then turned around and said “DUDE! WTF?” He then had the gull to shoot me the finger. It was at that point I got up out of my seat and started walking over to where he was. About half way there he saw the light, hung up his phone (with out saying good bye) then gestured his hand in the stopping motion as if to say “Alright man I don’t want no shit” (I was a tad bit bigger than this guy)
On my way back to my seat I could hear a couple doing their best to control their laughter.
Seems a bit of a non-issue to me, but then I’ve spent time in Southern Africa and S-E Asia, where it’s pretty common. However, when I go back to Ireland and it happens there, it aggravates me. A quiet ‘Would you mind?’ usually does the trick, though.
You might want to check your browser and see what kind of odd error caused you to view an OP objecting to someone who discreetly checked a phone after it silently vibrated an alarm and answered it after moving as inobtrusively as possible to the lobby. The rest of us saw a message about a waste of protoplasm who was conducting a loud conversation in the middle of the audience.
I go to the movies, with a babysitter at home and a husband that is on call. He puts his phone on vibrate and if we have to take/make a call we leave the theatre. We sit near/at the back so it’s not usually a big deal.
I don’t know what is wrong with people that they don’t do the same.
This sentence pretty well sums up why I increasingly feel the desire to distance myself from society as much as possible. Just the damn lack of politeness/consideration on things you would hope were common sense - basic human nature. Or lacking that, learned by kindergarten.
Generally, taking action is of little use. All too often the “offender” will tell you to fuck off. And if you do anything physical, you can get your ass sued. Even having to go out and get the manager significantly detracts from your ability to just enjoy the damn movie.
And too often the alternative to acting is to feel impotent.
Perhaps I should just let more things slide. And I have been able to in many circumstances, such as rude traffic and such. Tho I still notice such things, I am generally able to not get emotional about them.
But situations such as the OP describes seem so common, that I tend to keep to my home as much as possible. Fortunately, I have a very nice home and enjoy the company of my family.
I don’t recall addressing people who put their phone on vibrate & quietly leave the theater before taking a call.
I trust most professionals who are accustomed to being on call will remember to put their phones on vibrate and quietly leave the theater to take a call.
Most people who say “I always put my phone on vibrate and quietly leave the theater” are people who are waiting for a Very Important Phone Call. Doesn’t matter what that call is. Who am I to judge? It’s up to the person what constitutes a VIPC. There’s always someone who feels just about every phone call is a VIPC. It could be the babysitter, it could be the emergency room, it could be an automated voice announcing tonight’s winning lotto numbers. If it’s a VIPC to you, despite the fact you’ve (the in general you) said “I always leave the theater” often enough, you’re not. You’re going to take the call because duh, it’s a VIPC! My house might be on fire! My babies might have been kidnapped! Who cares what the 100 other people in the audience think? It’s a VIPC!
And sometimes it really is a VIPC, like last week when the computer connection for the stat lab at the hospital where hubby works went down. A 600-bed hospital with no functioning stat lab? Not a real good idea. We were home when he got that call, but had we been out, he would have had his phone on vibrate and would have gone out of the theater to take the call.
But that’s not the same thing as the asswipe the OP is talking about. Personally, I love the idea of starting a side-of-the-angels urban legend about that. It just has to be a realistic enough one that people would actually fall for it, unlike the bathtub kidney. More like the Kentucky Fried Mouse, that’s been circulating since I was a teenager lo these far too many years ago.
or arrested yourself. I agree that the offending cell phone twit was deserving of scorn, derision, eviction from the theater (which, frankly may have happened had he still been on the phone when the manager arrived). grabbing on to him, threatening to physically harm him can get you, personally in jail in some jurisdictions.
let me again state, for the record, the cell phone guy was an asshole. he deserved to be ousted from the theater, so others could enjoy the movie for which they paid, perhaps even banned from that theater for a period of time. but beat up? jeez. what’s your solution when some one has truly wronged you vs. annoyed you for a short period of time?
I’ve never clocked someone in a theater, but I do publicly humiliate cell-phone screamers on public transportation as often as I can.
Mind you, not people who have conversations in a normal tone of voice, or do a quick, “I’m on the 5:47, meet me at the train station.” No, I’m taking about the, “HI, I’M ON THE TRAIN . . . NOTHING MUCH, WHAT’S UP WITH YOU?” people. Glaring does no good, so I walk up to them, show them the book I am trying to read, and quietly, politely, ask, “I’m sorry, do you think you could talk a little more quietly? Thanks.”
That actually does work a surprising number of times. If they ignore me, glare back, or start to argue, I just say in my loudest Margaret Dumont enraged dowager voice, “WELL, IF YOU CAN’T BE QUIET, WILL YOU AT LEAST PLEASE TRY TO BE IMORE NTERESTING?” This usually gets laughter and applause from the other commuters, and shames the offender into hanging up.
This has become such a problem in live theatre. You pay over $100 a ticket and have to hear someone on their cell? Stage actors have been known to stop dead and glare at the person, cuss them out, and in one case come down off the stage, grab the phone and start yelling at the other person.
It’s illegal now in NYC and the theatres are taking action. It sucks!
I dunno, wring. Sometimes I think these minor incivilities might be more worthy of punishment - including the infliction of physical pain or property damage - than “more serious” some intentional crimes. There are simply insufficient ways to get back at the types of people who unthinkingly commit these transgressions. The best way to make an impression on such louts may be with a shovel.
Once the theater-phoner chose to violate the standards of appropriate public conduct, he forced his fellow theater-goers to assume the role of having correction administered - a role they would have preferred not to have thrust on them. Seems only fair that they should get some say on how the correction is meted out. And it doesn’t strike me as too terrible that the phoner runs the risk of offending someone who prefers an approach other than searching down a manager who may or may not take care of the situation.
At times I think basic rudeness and incivility is worse than crimes against property and persons, because they seem to be so increasingly pervasive, with the cumulative effect of eroding what can be expected of social interaction. Poor cellphone etiquette is a crime against humanity, I say! Tearing the very fabric of our society!
Eve - at the risk of having this devolve into another “Why do people feel the need to shout into cell phones?” thread, I came up with what I considered a decent response the other day on the train. In between his rapidfire handsfree/lavalier(sp?) calls I observed that if he “made an effort to speak into his phone, the rest of the car wouldn’t need to hear every word of his calls.” Surprisingly, he apologised, and was far quieter. But if he had told me to fuck off, I would have had no alternative to just sitting there and stewing.
Which points out the choice I perceive myself as often facing. Do I say/do nothing to rudeness and either try to ignore it or be pissed silently, or remove myself from the situation? Do I say something - however polite - and get more rudeness including direct hostility in response - which I will have a harder time ignoring? Or do I say something and have the person amend his or her behavior?
Unfortunately, in most such cases I feel that if I choose to say/do something, the odds are probably better than 50/50 that the impolite person will either ignore me or tell me to fuck off. So I feel the best way to ensure odds in my favor is to simply say nothing, which can lead to the feelings of powerlessness I referred to earlier.
But please, don’t ever hit anyone over this sort of crap. It’s not worth it. Instead, take his cell phone away, and fling it against a hard surface, or toss it on top of a roof. Then, it likely isn’t assault and battery.IANAL. One guy ran over my toe whilst talking on a cell, and I reached in, grabbed his phone and THREW!!! I then limped away (no real damage to my toe), and he sat they for a bit, got out, looked at me, looked at where his cell phone had been thrown, and drove away. Of course, since he had commited ADW on me 1st, my minor act of retailiation wasn’t going to get me in trouble with the cops.
Usually when there’s a Pit thread about how we need signal blockers in movie theaters, I’ll be one of the first ones there telling whoever is calling for that to fuck off. We won’t need them if more people would just do what Larry did. Confront them. Show them what as asshole they’re being. You’ll probably find that most of the theater will have your back.
You need to shame assholes into not acting like assholes. You need to stand up for yourself.
That was the only scene I remember from the recent short-lived show featuring the guy from Ed - Love Monkey or somesuch. He was dealing with a pompous director who was always on the phone. In one glorious scene “Ed” grabbed the cell out of the director’s hand and shattered it against the wall.
More than once I have thought that if I won the lottery, I’d fill my pockets with hundreds, and when I encountered a “rude celphone user” I would wordlessly slam the phone to the ground or into the wall, probably stomp on it for good measure, and then apologize and hand them a couple of hundreds. Of course it is unrealistic and a whole bunch of other things, but it is probably among the more innocuous of my little fantasies…
