Just Turn It Off!

I do not normally post on Saturdays but I watched a segment about texting on cellphones during movies and concerts (Patti Lupone has said she is fed up with people who come to her shows... apparently this was a play... and then pay more attention to their phones than to her). This must stop.

After I quit smoking, I would often hear smokers complain about non-smokers being rude to them. They meant it. They thought they were being picked on. One of the complaints and comments was "I always ask if it is okay if I smoke." To which I, as a non-smoker, often said, "Bull!"

There was a day when I called a construction firm about putting a deck in our backyard. This was during my first marriage. The salesman came out and told us how they could construct a deck that would be wonderful and spacious.

While we were standing in the living room, he lit a cigarette and smoked it. He never asked if he could smoke. It was only when the cigarette had burned down to the filter that he looked around for an ashtray. There were none. He then asked for one and was told, "We do not smoke."

I think he knew, at that point, that he would not make the sale.

Why do I bring this up? Because there is a new addiction rampant in the world. It is cellphone addiction. In restaurants, in movie theaters, pretty much everywhere; people are either texting or talking on cellphones. It has to stop. It is rude. It is annoying, it is ridiculous.

Unless you are a doctor and have a patient waiting for a transplant, that call to you can wait!

Once, not so long ago, we would be unreachable for many hours in a day. Why? Because we were not at home... where the phone was. Now, everyone (or most everyone) is reachable 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And these calls are, on the whole, non-critical.

I would like restaurants and golf courses to confiscate any cellphone they find. I would like to see signs that read "CELLPHONE FREE AREA!" and I would like to see them enforced. What is ruder than a person at a table in a restaurant ignoring others at his table by having a conversation with someone who is not there? And how rude is it to inflict half a conversation on other diners?

What ever happened to common courtesy? Rudeness seems the order of the day now. Back when I was a smoker, I realized that the cigarette was my "master" and I was just a slave. Now cellphones are the masters we must obey.

Just shut it off! You will thank me later.