<p>I run a very small but complex retail business with a few employees. We are open 7 days. The only way I can get a day out of the shop is to have a cell phone so when there is a question that only I know the answer to, the employees can reach me. </p>
<p>I do try to keep the thing on vibrate, and I do leave the room. I know that most of the world does not want to know about what to do about a guinea pig with the runs or an iguana that is shedding. Not to mention, I’d prefer my competitors and the public not know my pricing schemes or what new hot item we just got in.</p>
<p>However – on several occasions we have a clueless shopper come in at closing time and proceed to have a full conversation on his cell phone and not allow us to either help him or close the store !</p>
<p>I was sitting on a panel that was interviewing candidates for a job. The candidate’s phone went off - and he answered it. Probably 8 sets of eyes watched him while he explained to his caller where he was and why he’d have to call back.</p>
<p>I attended a musical recital in a church hall where you could hear a pin drop. A woman answers her phone and carries on a conversation - what she must have thought was sotto voce but was not sotto enough. Unbelievable.</p>
<p>I dont think it costs extra to have your cell on vibrate or silent- mine even has voice mail messaging included!
We have a family plan and I find it very handy.
I can call my daughter for instance when I am stuck in traffic so she can wait for me somewhere safe & she can call me to let me know when to leave the house when she is on her way home from a meet.
Saves lots of waiting around time .
It doesn’t bother me for some reason when people are talking on their cells on a bus, but it does on the train- at least they should go intbetween cars.
I recently played mom in the library to a girl who looked about 13 who apparently in an online chat room and took a call. Normal voice but in a library that was very loud, I kept giving her dirty looks, until I heard her tell the caller that she was 17, I responded so that her caller could hear me, that she looked 13. She hung up and got very angry aboout butting in on a private call, I imformed her that when it is in a public library, then it is a public call, if you want it to be private you take it elsewhere.
I suggest that others also respond to “public” calls- after all they are part of the public and perhaps those on the other end would like to hear our perspective :)</p>
<p>I am a physician. You wouldn’t believe the number of times I’ve walked into the room to see a patient who may have been waiting quite a long time to be seen, and they won’t get off their goddammned cell phone. I’ll give them a few seconds to hang up, but then I tend to walk out and go see someone else (or several someone elses).</p>
<p>My students are generally good about turning their ringers off, though last week one went off in class. He was a little mortified that the entire room now knows the ringtone for his cell phone is “Dreamweaver.”</p>
<p>I wonder why the ad coms didn’t just say, sweetly, please turn that off and this is a good occasion to remind everyone else to turn the phone off.</p>
<p>I wonder why the ad coms didn’t just say, sweetly, please turn that off and this is a good occasion to remind everyone else to turn the phone off.
Ive read that during a performance of the Seattle symphony that the conductor Gerard Scharwz- stopped and glared at the culprit</p>
<p>I was present at a high school play when a cell phone went off in the front row. The character onstage, who was sitting behind a desk, turned and looked into the audience and said, “Is that for me?” never breaking character. It was effective and no other cell phones went off in the middle of the performance.</p>
<p>Nathan Lane left the stage and went into the audience, picked up a cell phone from a person and told the caller, He can’t talk now, hes at a Broadway Play, and then hung up.</p>
<p>I haven’t seen it myself to know, but according to a piece in the LA Times, in the infamous Paris-Hilton-having-sex video, Paris’s cell ring and she answer it and takes the call, all without missing a beat. Jay Leno did jokes about that scene about how switftly she pounces on the ringing phone so as not to miss the call.</p>
<p>I attended a Broadway play some years ago when a couple came back from intermission a few minutes after the second act had begun (don’t ask me how they got by the ushers). But they had been sitting directly in front of us, and proceeded, still clutching their snacks, to make their way to a <em>center</em> seat location about ten rows back from the stage, making everyone stand or scrunch to let them through. It was unbelievable. The lead, who had been in the midst of an important soliloquy, stopped the play (it was a comic scene in “The Scarlet Pimpernel” and he was looking at them through pair of opera glasses) and said (still in character) to his fellow players–“I guess we’ll have to stop–these two won’t understand what’s going on because they missed the whole beginning.” As the entire cast and audience roared, he offered gently barbed words of encouragement to these poor rubes as they awkwardly made their way back to their seats, finally saying “OK–are you ready now?” and then restarting the scene. I’ve never seen anything like it before or since, but I can guarantee that no one present that night has ever considered entering a theater during acts, or, probably, ever forgotten to turn their cell phones off either.</p>
<p>My D usally remembers to turn her phone off when she sticks it in her backpack at school</p>
<p>last week, someone called, it was the wrong #, in the middle of science, she looked aroud like everyone else wondering where the ringing was coming from. with an oh so innocent look, its not ME, on her face</p>
<p>At almost ALL events I go to know, movies, shows, meetings, school stuff, we are all gently reminded to turn off or put phones on vibrate</p>
<p>I went to a performance of the Vagina Monologues where at the beginning they gave a gentle reminder to turn all cell phones off. One of the actors continued, “Please don’t put your cell phones on vibrate, we had a problem with that last night, and we don’t want to repeat the problem.” A good gentle reminder that they didn’t think anything was earth shattering enough for the college audience that the play be interupted, especially since it was sold out with a waiting list for tickets.</p>
<p>what is just as bad IMO( and probably more frequent) as having your cell go off in a performance- are people who chat through the grocery or minimart and don’t hang up even when being rung up- it is especially irritating when they act like the person helping them isn’t worthy of their attention- + they don’t even have a headset- so they must get their money out etc- with one hand-
gawd- people are such idiots</p>
<p>My story if from well before the age of cell phones. We were at a concert and the orchestra was playing the second, slow movement of a symphony when suddenly, from several rows in front of us came the sound of a resounding slap. A man and a woman had been having a sotto voce argument. The slap, however, was definitely fortissimo.</p>
That reminds me of the young woman who would rob banks all the while talking on her cell phone. They caught her and now she is serving time where there are no cell phones. I think they should have added a few extra years to her sentence for her rudeness.</p>
<p>I have been at concerts where some teenager is sitting in a row near me and has his cell phone open and is doing something with it (text messaging? gaming? who knows?). Even though he is not speaking into it, the light is very annoying.</p>
<p>My son was in a public speaking contest yesterday and besides the woman loudly cooing to her baby there were several cell phones going off. I just couldn’t believe the rudeness; it is hard enough for teens to get up and speak but to carry on a conversation during a speech, after the crowd was told no cells. It was beyond belief.</p>
