I am not anti-cell phone. I think it’s wise to have one in the car in case of emergency, and I don’t object to quiet, necessary phone calls in public.
BUT.
There was a woman on the train today (no, not the same woman who was applying makeup last week) SHRIEKING into her cell phone for the entire ride. Her conversation was so dull and pointless that I cannot recall a single word of it, though I had to endure it throughout the whole commute. I was sitting five seats away from her, so I couldn’t get to her or even effectively glare a hole through her, dammit. I don’t understand why people within striking distance didn’t DO something! I tried to catch up with her when we got off the train so I could call her down for the impertinent jackanapes she is . . .
WHY do people feel called upon to SCREAM their dull, squalid little conversations so everyone within three train cars can hear them? And WHY do so few people lean over and say, “will you shut the hell UP?”
Maybe the woman just has a loud voice. Maybe the person she was talking to has a hearing problem. Maybe the connection between the two phones was bad, and they both had to project their voice. It could be a lot of things.
As for someone telling her to shut the fuck up about it… maybe they are afraid of her. Maybe she is big, tall, and fat, and looks like she could beat them to the ground.
I mean, for someone who is just talking on their cell phone loudly, I doubt I would tell them to shut up, especially if I was alone.
Oh, I would have told her to shut up if I’d been within range. This woman (not particularly threatening-looking) had a voice that could strip paint. She was droning on and on about NOTHING, and if she had a naturally loud voice or her friend had a hearing problem, so what? They were disturbing a whole train-carful of people who were trying to read, sleep or converse quietly. She was just a chuckle-headed bawd who has no regard for others, and the people near her (who were obviously, visibly, annoyed) were too timid to say “boo” to a goose.
I find an effective way to get people to quiet down while on their wireless phone is to start talking about the details of their conversation with other people.
“Did you hear that? Apparently she’s having trouble in the loo. I find that a cup of strong slippery elm tea cleans me right out…”
I can usually quiet them down if I am sitting next to them or across from them. I just close my book, lean over and STARE at them with utter fascination, like I am watching a really good movie. They get very flustered and hang up within a minute or two, and I don’t have to utter a word.
The problem with THIS braying fishwife is that she was “out of sight but not out of hearing.” I kept thinking of that commercial with the opera singer skewering the guy’s cell phone with her spear . . . There’s never a soprano with a spear when ya need one.
Up until recently I officed in a building that had a real estate school on my floor. I think all realtors use cell phones, often. Anyway, a scenario I became accustomed to (and always enjoyed) was having two people using cell phones on the elevator. They’d always get annoyed with each other.
None of you can complain, unless you live in Scandanavia, Hong Kong, or Israel!
I lived in Israel for eleven months. 60% of Israelis own cell phones. I would guess that that figure is significantly higher in the cities (where I lived - Haifa and Jerusalem). Probably as high as 90%, but I met literally two Israelis that didn’t have cell phones, so it might be even higher. Absolutely every single person owned a cell phone. The phone would ring on the bus, and everyone would reach for their bags. A ten minute bus ride would yield three or four phone calls. Worst - the time a woman decided she needed to change her ring sound on the bus, so she ran through every single little electronic song her phone played. Phones ringing in the movie theater, in class, during exams, in nice restaurants. I find actually find Americans complaining about cell phones kind of amusing, because so very few people have phones in comparison. The only thing I hate is when people drive with phones. Idiot!
(am I allowed to use a smilie in the Pit?)