Ship of Fools: Hell: SHUT UP!

Thread: Hell: SHUT UP! Board: Limbo / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Gwai (# 11076) on :

I am well and truly sick of people who talk loudly in service. Now I have been known to whisper softly (if no one sits too near me) or write notes but talking out loud is pretty blatantly outrageous.
I was enjoying a very meaningful and beautiful All Saints Service and thinking of those who had gone before when I was distracted first by the tag of my shirt being fixed and then people giggling about something utterly unimportant.

SHUT THE FUCK UP! And I didn't even turn around and glare because these were people I need to get along with (and one fo them is utterly unshamable anyway.)

[ 04. April 2007, 12:35: Message edited by: Sarkycow ]

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

I'm just sick of loud people in general, whatever the venue. My whole life has been plagued by people who conduct conversations as if their every word is so damned interesting that everybody within a hundred-foot radius should hear every last detail.

WTF, are you hoping if you broadcast it far enough you'll eventually reach an interested party?

Posted by irreverentkit (# 4271) on :

My sister is Catholic, and moved about five years ago to a town not too far from her former place of residence. But she believes you should go to your parish church, so she joined the church in her new town.

The worshippers are driving her crazy. They come in, slump in the pews and talk through the service like they were in their living room watching a stupid TV program.

She and her husband are considering begging to be adult acolytes so they can sit up with the priest, away from the chatting masses.

Posted by RuthW (# 13) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Gwai:
I was distracted first by the tag of my shirt being fixed

Not to take away from the main focus of your rant -- which I am totally down with, by the way -- but I HATE IT when people turn down the tag on my shirt. If it's sticking up, just tell me about it. DON'T TOUCH ME! I once had a complete stranger who tried several times to turn down my tag despite the fact that I kept twisting away from her.

Posted by Lots of Yay (# 2790) on :

I have realised this year that a couple of my friends are incapable of whispering. One of them is not a problem because he doesn't often talk during lectures. The other one never shuts up.

Luckily for the people around me, I am comfortable turning around and saying "Oy! Shut up!" when he's sitting behind me yabbering to the poor person beside him. Funnily enough, although he is quiet after being told to, he never learns.

Ah I have a lot of rage about rudeness.

Posted by Flausa (# 3466) on :

I have a friend who's husband is stage manager at a theater, so they get free tickets to all the shows. They spread around the tickets by taking a different friend to each show. I was lucky enough to get invited to go see Les Mis with her and was quite excited. I was less than thrilled, however, when I found out that she wanted to chat throughout the entire production. She had seen Les Mis before, so she had to compare every bit to the previous production in her best "whisper." Things like, "oh the last guy did this death scene much better," loudly enough that not only did we get glares from the folks seated around us, but the actor on stage (we were only a few rows back) seemed none to pleased either. But can you slap someone who has treated you? Please, tell me, because I'm happy to do it retrospectively.

Posted by Balaam (# 4543) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Flausa:

But can you slap someone who has treated you? Please, tell me, because I'm happy to do it retrospectively.

Let us know how she reacts to the slap [Two face]

I know happy clappy worship is supposed to be loud, but to have two men in front of you talking about football loud enough to be heard over the singing is bad. What is worse is that they raised their hands at the point in the songs where other worshippers did, without pausing in their conversation.

Idiots. [Mad]

Posted by chive (# 208) on :

Can we add those people who think it's reasonable to run up and down the Shuttle when we're on the bus coming back from a really busy night shift and trying to get some fucking sleep before we have to drive home? Shut up you ignorant self obsessed little bastards.

Posted by the coiled spring (# 2872) on :

One of the classics I witnessed was a teenage girl getting on her mobile and yapping to her friend as she wandered up the ailse during the Eucherist. She was a bit loud, put mobile away so priest could not see it on recieving and carried on conversation as she walked away.
Well it was a baptism

[ 30. October 2006, 08:38: Message edited by: the coiled spring ]

Posted by Gordon Cheng (# 8895) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Balaam:

I know happy clappy worship is supposed to be loud, but to have two men in front of you talking about football loud enough to be heard over the singing is bad. What is worse is that they raised their hands at the point in the songs where other worshippers did, without pausing in their conversation.

What's wrong with that? Some of those songs are really ordinary.

I went to a Hillsong conference recently and spent most of my time on the laptop. It was a bit annoying when the guy up the front was getting us to doh-see-doh with the person next to us to illustrate the main point of his talk. Thankfully the person next to me was happy to just sit as well.

Posted by The Man With No Name (# 10858) on :

quote:
Originally posted by the coiled spring:
One of the classics I witnessed was a teenage girl getting on her mobile and yapping to her friend as she wandered up the ailse during the Eucherist. She was a bit loud, put mobile away so priest could not see it on recieving and carried on conversation as she walked away.
Well it was a baptism

I've also seen someone answering his mobile, and sending text messages most of the way through a baptism, which formed part of the main Sunday Mass at my parish.

Thought long and hard afterwards about whether it would be better for people who aren't prepared to behave to stay away, or if it's never better for someone to stay away... Dunno

Incidentally the girlfriend of a friend of my other half took photos all through my son's baptism, despite everyone being asked to respect the fact that the service was a Mass and a sacrament by refraining from taking pictures until afterwards.

Why? Why??

Posted by basso (# 4228) on :

quote:
Originally posted by The Man With No Name:
I've also seen someone answering his mobile, and sending text messages most of the way through a baptism, which formed part of the main Sunday Mass at my parish.

[tangent]A friend was once accused of similar behavior. She wasn't texting through the sermon -- she was checking the preacher's Biblical references on her PDA.[/tangent]

b.

Posted by Margaret (# 283) on :

My all-time favourite is one a friend told me about at his church a couple of years ago. A woman waiting in the queue for communion whipped out her mobile, rang her husband, and told him he could turn the oven on now as Mass was nearly over...

Posted by Jenn R (# 5239) on :

I actually said shut up out loud in church yesterday. A normally peaceful part of the service, as people were taking/waiting for communion was interrupted by someone "speaking out what the Lord says". It was very irritating. Why oh why is it always the same person? Why oh why can they not see that other people might not find it helpful to have their reception of the body and blood of Christ disrupted by a nice statement about how lovely it is to go to the Lords table? Rahness. I understand that sometimes God does speak and we shouldn't stifle the spirit, but there is no way I trust myself to be sitting anywhere near that woman during any future service. I would have hit her yesterday had I been closer. Not the best communion preparation, methinks.

Posted by altarbird (# 11983) on :

It is basic politeness, and it is too basic as to often be ommitted in today's society.

I'm top choice for a movie date by a particular friend because he knows I won't talk to him during the movie. This makes him very happy. And the fact that he doesn't talk to me during the movie makes me very happy.

The fact that he has an amazing Paddington stare that even works in the dark of a movie theatre on obnoxious chatty kids thrills me to my very core.

Posted by Telepath (# 3534) on :

Originally posted by Flausa:

quote:
But can you slap someone who has treated you? Please, tell me, because I'm happy to do it retrospectively.

Obviously, here is someone who deserves to be bludgeoned with a frozen wombat until unidentifiable except by dental records.

Alas, it is written "one may not break bread with people and then criticize them afterwards."

Criticizing them during is right out. And yes, the prohibition does extend to physical assault.

No matter how much they deserve it. If that particular theatre hadn't been their stamping ground, you would have been able to say, "Please don't talk to me during the show," but this is a case of someone who so obviously should have known better, you have to wonder if he was TRYING to piss people off.

At least you'll know better than to go near a theatre with that particular person, in future.

Or for a small fee, I could... no. But don't you wish I would?

Posted by geroff (# 3882) on :

I usually put it down to age that the man who sits behind us at church doesn't know when he is shouting. But why does he need to gossip before the service anyway, what's so important that it can't wait till the after-church-coffee-bit™.

Posted by ToujoursDan (# 10578) on :

I was subjected to this when trying to watch "The Queen". The people behind me, who I suspect were high, gave running commentary through the whole movie. Everyone around them told them to shut up at one point or another, and someone called management who also warned them. But to no avail. It ruined the whole experience.

And then I was in New York on the subway I nearly lost it. Now I am used to people going through the cars putting on an act or just begging for money. These are usually are over by the time the next stop comes around.

This last Sunday while taking the A train from the UWS to Brooklyn I was subjected to an hour-long sermon telling us over and over and over that we needed to repent, be born from above or we are going to hell, which he described in detail. I never wanted to tell someone to shut the fuck up more than then, but he would probably claim that I was persecuting him. [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Flausa (# 3466) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Telepath:
Criticizing them during is right out. And yes, the prohibition does extend to physical assault.

Shoot. I knew someone familiar with the finer points of etiquette would confirm my suspicions.

quote:
Or for a small fee, I could... no. But don't you wish I would?

I'll just PM you her name and address ... [Biased]

Posted by Bean Sidhe (# 11823) on :

quote:
Originally posted by RuthW:
I HATE IT when people turn down the tag on my shirt. If it's sticking up, just tell me about it. DON'T TOUCH ME!

Once I was talking to Beanlet the Younger's nursery teacher when she reached out and pushed some stray hairs off my face. It felt so invasive and patronising I was furious, though with my child's teacher I wasn't going to show it. Some people have so little sense of personal space. Or holy space, I am absolutely with Gwai on this.

Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :

I recently attended a Joan Baez concert -- I was seated in the last row, and it was the two ushers standing at the back of the theater who kept talking during the performance. One was oblivious to my glare (I refused to make any shushing sounds and add to the noise), but the other one caught it and passed on the word to the talker. It happened several times. If they didn't want to hear the concert they shouldn't have volunteered to work that show.

Posted by Nightlamp (# 266) on :

Is this the daughter of TICTH, where those with petty whinges can have a get together?

[ 30. October 2006, 13:46: Message edited by: Nightlamp ]

Posted by Saint Bertelin (# 5638) on :

quote:
Originally posted by RuthW:

quote:
Originally posted by Gwai:
I was distracted first by the tag of my shirt being fixed
Not to take away from the main focus of your rant -- which I am totally down with, by the way -- but I HATE IT when people turn down the tag on my shirt. If it's sticking up, just tell me about it. DON'T TOUCH ME! I once had a complete stranger who tried several times to turn down my tag despite the fact that I kept twisting away from her.

I haven't had anybody try that since I was about 10 years old. I think I'd be rather annoyed as well.

Posted by Bean Sidhe (# 11823) on :

I've heard some traditions are very different, I've not been to a Hindu temple but I'm told they can be a buzz of noise whatever's happening.

Posted by davelarge (# 186) on :

And another thing: Isn't it strange how the people that will talk through a sermon instantly go quiet when members of the congregation is invited to pray?

Posted by Gwai (# 11076) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Saint Bertelin:

quote:
Originally posted by RuthW:

quote:
Originally posted by Gwai:
I was distracted first by the tag of my shirt being fixed
Not to take away from the main focus of your rant -- which I am totally down with, by the way -- but I HATE IT when people turn down the tag on my shirt. If it's sticking up, just tell me about it. DON'T TOUCH ME! I once had a complete stranger who tried several times to turn down my tag despite the fact that I kept twisting away from her.
I haven't had anybody try that since I was about 10 years old. I think I'd be rather annoyed as well.

Yeah, I figured I could really do without that as well. Particularly since it came with a smarmy little joke which I'm not quoting in case I am read by someone I know.

Posted by The Riv (# 3553) on :

This very thing keeps me out of movie theaters.

In Church, though, do you think it happens b/c of ingorance, or more of an intentional disregard of others' worship?

I mean, in Society, we've been telling each other it's all about "me" for some time. Any more, one can hardly expect anything less than mindless selfishness and inconsideration. In Church, though, it makes one wonder if we're not doing adequate enough jobs of educating our congregations about the corporate aspects of worship and/or liturgy. That's the biggest pitfall in "Contemporary" worship (at least to me) -- SO much focus on 'Just Jesus & Me'.

Posted by sabine (# 3861) on :

quote:
Originally posted by the coiled spring:
One of the classics I witnessed was a teenage girl getting on her mobile and yapping to her friend as she wandered up the ailse during the Eucherist. She was a bit loud, put mobile away so priest could not see it on recieving and carried on conversation as she walked away.
Well it was a baptism

I once attended a Eucharist Service with a friend when, while he was preaching the sermon, there was a ring tone. The priest said "Sorry, I really do have to take this," and then answered the phone. [Eek!]

I think it was his daughter telling him her flight had arrived somewhere or another, but still....

sabine

Posted by Amazing Grace (# 95) on :

Boggle indeed!

I was going to kvetch about people who didn't turn their phone ringers to something non-noisy during service, having been treated to a ring-tone symphony during the Breaking of the Bread this Sunday past, but that tops any phones-in-church stories that I've heard.

Charlotte

Posted by RooK (# 1852) on :

quote:
Originally posted by The Riv:
I mean, in Society, we've been telling each other it's all about "me" for some time. Any more, one can hardly expect anything less than mindless selfishness and inconsideration. In Church, though, it makes one wonder if we're not doing adequate enough jobs of educating our congregations about the corporate aspects of worship and/or liturgy. That's the biggest pitfall in "Contemporary" worship (at least to me) -- SO much focus on 'Just Jesus & Me'.

It's hard to choke down that argument from somebody whose primary reason for supporting tax cuts during a government deficit-spiral was that it got him a personal pile of cash. Or are you just representative of that typical breed of christianity that treats church as totally separate from the realities of life?

Posted by mrs whibley (# 4798) on :

And how, pray tell, is the news that a flight has arrived urgent? Frankly, and since we're in hell, I doubt even the news that it had crashed would be that urgent, since noone would be any less dead for waiting half an hour to tell Daddy.
There was a time (and I'm showing my age here) when you didn't have to be permanently available to everyone all the time. Church is not a place for mobile phones. And, unless you have some kind of disability, you don't need to look up texts on a PDA either - try using the Bible, it even has an index if you're lost.

Mrs Whibley

Posted by basso (# 4228) on :

quote:
Originally posted by mrs whibley:
And, unless you have some kind of disability, you don't need to look up texts on a PDA either - try using the Bible, it even has an index if you're lost.

There is a certain kind of disability here - my friend is ECUSA and it's rare indeed to find pew bibles in our churches. Even rarer is to see someone carrying one in.

b.

Posted by Bean Sidhe (# 11823) on :

quote:
Originally posted by mrs whibley:
There was a time (and I'm showing my age here) when you didn't have to be permanently available to everyone all the time.

I long for it, now if you're not available it is something to explain. In church I switch my phone off, unless there's a kid alone at home in which case it's on vibrate and I'll slip out quietly if they call, that priest should have shut his down and picked up the message when he had finished. It wouldn't have made a scrap of difference to what he could do about it. Rook, what you say about some, perhaps a good few Christians, is so true.

That said, I once forgot to shut mine down at Choral Evensong and somebody called me during the Nunc Dimitis. The daggers that flew at me from the sanctuary and the choir stalls could have pinned me to the pew.

[ 30. October 2006, 19:10: Message edited by: Bean Sidhe ]

Posted by The Riv (# 3553) on :

quote:
Originally posted by RooK:

quote:
Originally posted by The Riv:
I mean, in Society, we've been telling each other it's all about "me" for some time. Any more, one can hardly expect anything less than mindless selfishness and inconsideration. In Church, though, it makes one wonder if we're not doing adequate enough jobs of educating our congregations about the corporate aspects of worship and/or liturgy. That's the biggest pitfall in "Contemporary" worship (at least to me) -- SO much focus on 'Just Jesus & Me'.
It's hard to choke down that argument from somebody whose primary reason for supporting tax cuts during a government deficit-spiral was that it got him a personal pile of cash. Or are you just representative of that typical breed of christianity that treats church as totally separate from the realities of life?

Well, try using something other than your usual 600-proof bile as a chaser.

Don't forget, Rook, that in the same thread you're dredging up, I believe it was no one less than you who acknowledged that of all the posters contributing it was no one less than me who had the only rational reason for voting Republican you could acknowledge: lower taxes, a tax cut, rebate, whatever it was. (BTW, "primary" is merely your ex post facto characterization.) Was the thread not about voting? I'm not completely sure. My memory is, well, how can I say it? "Representative of that breed of christianity" that can't keep one instance of you behaving like a mangled prick from the legion of other instances.

Do I, in general and on principle, want to pay lower taxes? Yes. Do I think Governments (Local, State, Federal) could do as much or more with less money if it was managed better? I do. Was my tax rebate or cut the hedonistic pile of cash you describe? It wasn't -- just a couple hundred dollars. So go ahead -- bind me for a blood eagle. I'm sure it's the only thing fitting for someone representative of my breed of christianity.

Posted by RooK (# 1852) on :

quote:
Originally posted by The Riv:
(BTW, "primary" is merely your ex post facto characterization.) Was the thread not about voting?

Indeed. My recollection includes you being challenged to defend your voting basis of a tax cut in light of an unthinkable simultaneous increase in spending by the voted-for administration. To which, as I imperfectly recall, you said something like, "All I know is that I got some money back, and nothing you say will change that." It's that not-so-unselfish aspect that was sparked in my memory due to our present circumstance.

quote:
My memory is, well, how can I say it? "Representative of that breed of christianity" that can't keep one instance of you behaving like a mangled prick from the legion of other instances.

It's consistent types like you and I that have the most to gain from paying attention to each other.

Posted by Sarkycow (# 1012) on :

quote:
Originally posted by mrs whibley:
There was a time (and I'm showing my age here) when you didn't have to be permanently available to everyone all the time.

You don't have to be now. That's why mobile phones have an off button. People may choose to be permanently available, or at least possibly permanently available ('phone on silent and checking caller ID before answering' is what a lot of people do), but they don't have to be.

Cut the melodramatics, they just make you look stupid.

quote:
And, unless you have some kind of disability, you don't need to look up texts on a PDA either - try using the Bible, it even has an index if you're lost.

And the difference between a Bible and a PDA that have the Bible on it? One is a newer technology, that's all. Insisting that everyone should use the book version of the Bible specifically makes you sound like a ignorant luddite.

Sarkycow

Posted by Leetle Masha (# 8209) on :

We have a little sign in the narthex that says, "Please turn off your mobile phone before entering church...."

The sign doesn't always work.

Mary

Posted by The Great Gumby (# 10989) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Sarkycow:

quote:
Originally posted by mrs whibley:
There was a time (and I'm showing my age here) when you didn't have to be permanently available to everyone all the time.
You don't have to be now. That's why mobile phones have an off button. People may choose to be permanently available, or at least possibly permanently available ('phone on silent and checking caller ID before answering' is what a lot of people do), but they don't have to be.

Um, Sarky, I think that was kind of the point she was making. I read it as being a sarcastic comment that it appears, judging by the ridiculous places people make/take calls, that they must think they have to be constantly available, etc, because otherwise no one would be so ridiculously rude and self-absorbed as to leave their phones on in those situations otherwise. But I might be wrong.

I can't offer a defence for the luddite insistence on a paper Bible over a PDA, though. You've got her bang to rights there. [Big Grin]

Posted by GreyFace (# 4682) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Gordon Cheng:

quote:
Originally posted by Balaam:
I know happy clappy worship is supposed to be loud, but to have two men in front of you talking about football loud enough to be heard over the singing is bad. What is worse is that they raised their hands at the point in the songs where other worshippers did, without pausing in their conversation.
What's wrong with that? Some of those songs are really ordinary.

In the unlikely event in that you're serious Father Gordon, I'd have thought you'd have jumped on such behaviour from a great height given your track record on the idea of empty ritualism.

Were said people giving proper adoration to God whilst shouting about the football, do you think? Were their gestures a fervent prayer or merely conforming to the crowd? Was their behaviour edifying to those trying to actually participate in worship by singing?

quote:
I went to a Hillsong conference

Ah, I see your mistake. Carry on [Biased]

Posted by Bean Sidhe (# 11823) on :

Sarky is right, but my point was that switching off requires explanation and that is oppressive. At the moment I don't do that because for years we have allowed our children more freedom than we ever would if we couldn't keep in contact. Soon we'll be past that, after which I plan to turn my phone off at random. I have yet to decide whether my explanation will be "You went straight into voicemail? What a crappy network!" or simply "I just felt like it". In advance, I'm leaning heavily towards the latter.

Posted by luvanddaisies (# 5761) on :

quote:
Originally posted by mrs whibley:
[QUOTE][qb]And, unless you have some kind of disability, you don't need to look up texts on a PDA either - try using the Bible, it even has an index if you're lost.

quote:
Originally posted by Sarkycow:
And the difference between a Bible and a PDA that have the Bible on it? One is a newer technology, that's all. Insisting that everyone should use the book version of the Bible specifically makes you sound like a ignorant luddite.

Quite. And some people write their sermon notes onto their PDA as well, then link them to the passage. That's sort of hard to do on a paper Bible.

Posted by My Duck (# 11924) on :

Its funny, but when we had an organist who played quiet soothing mood-music before the service, the congo would chatter, some of them quite loudly - especially the deaf ones.

Now we have an organist who doesn't play until the hymn and we have complete silence (apart from stealthy movement noise, passing police cars etc etc)

Its bliss!

BUT my other hate is those idiots who insist on singing during the organist's introductory play-in [Mad]

Posted by Jengie Jon (# 273) on :

quote:
Originally posted by luvanddaisies:
And some people write their sermon notes onto their PDA as well, then link them to the passage. That's sort of hard to do on a paper Bible.

Now you should have told my great grandfather it was difficult. He wrote many of his sermons using my great grandmothers bible, and he definitely knew how to link notes to passages. I have the bible, the added scrawls, and the marginalia are very interesting.

Of course it was helped that the whole bible was in hypertext (cross referencing), and the habit of preaching was on a single passage. Biblical theology involved interpreting one passage in the light of others.

Jengie

[ 31. October 2006, 14:30: Message edited by: Jengie Jon ]

Posted by ken (# 2460) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Bean Sidhe:
Sarky is right, but my point was that switching off requires explanation and that is oppressive.

That's why God made batteries that run out.

Anyway, there is no reason whatsoever not to switch your phone off. Just do it. Don't blame it on others.

If someone is aggressively rude enough to ask you why, you can either tell them to piss off, or tell them you were in church. A decent person no more has their mobile phone on in church during the service than they would urinate against the wall at the back. Its Just Not Done.

OK, I did see someone urinate in a cathdral in France once, but some people were quite offended.

OK, OK, there are exceptions. A curate at our place left his phone on - BUT SILENT - last week because his wife was due to give birth any day soon. And said curate was in the pew, not preaching or leading.

But if you have so-called friends who think you should leave your phone on at church just take it as an Awful Warning. You now know what sort of people they are.

Posted by Jengie Jon (# 273) on :

Actually in my church mobile phones have reduced disturbance. We regularly have doctors on call present, and we certainly could hear the beep. With the phone set to vibrate they can quietly leave the service with far less disturbance.

The best one was the Pathologist. He'd get a bleep, go out for five minutes to ring them, return, have coffee then set off. Normally all the beep was "we have a scene of crime here". He then would negotiate a time to suit himself.

Jengie

Posted by MouseThief (# 953) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Jengie Jon:
Actually in my church mobile phones have reduced disturbance. We regularly have doctors on call present, and we certainly could hear the beep. With the phone set to vibrate they can quietly leave the service with far less disturbance.

There were pagers that could be set to "vibrate" long before cell phones became ubiquitous.

Posted by Sarkycow (# 1012) on :

quote:
Originally posted by ken:

quote:
Originally posted by Bean Sidhe:
Sarky is right, but my point was that switching off requires explanation and that is oppressive.
If someone is aggressively rude enough to ask you why, you can either tell them to piss off, or tell them you were in church.

Or say that you had your phone turned off because you were avoiding someone...

[Big Grin]

That used to be my answerphone message periodically. It annoyed the heck out of people [Smile]

Posted by Bean Sidhe (# 11823) on :

quote:
But if you have so-called friends who think you should leave your phone on at church just take it as an Awful Warning. You now know what sort of people they are.

Of course I turn my phone off in church and at other inappropriate times, and make no apology.

There are two issues being talked about here, firstly people leaving phones on at such times, and secondly the whole effect of constant communication and accessibility so that in the normal way of things you can never have those blissful spaces in life when nobody can get to you. Yes, you can turn your phone off but that does in practice need explanation. Friends will probably not mind and just have to cope with it if they do. Employers, associates, customers, significant others, all seem to take for granted these days immediate access.

So, yes, after the beanlets fly I will be switching off from time to time. To someone who pays me money I will say "Oh sorry, I must have lost my network". Anyone else I will tell that I needed some peace, was busy, couldn't be bothered, whatever it is.

Switching to writer mode, mobiles have seriously cut down on one's options. So many stories have depended on people being out of contact. I saw one soap episode in traditional style which was structured around desperate attempts to contact someone to tell him something awful had happened but nobody knew where he was. However this was a wheeler dealer who would have had a phone in each pocket on five different networks, no way would anyone have had any trouble getting in touch with him, the episode was absurd.

[ 31. October 2006, 17:03: Message edited by: Bean Sidhe ]

Posted by chukovsky (# 116) on :

There are still loads of places in the UK - and a greater proportion of the area of the US and Oz I would have thought - where mobiles don't work.

Virgin Trains are such places. If reception is poor, you either get voicemail immediately, or you go to voicemail when the phone loses reception halfway through the rings.

Phones are dodgy and cut out when you try to answer them, too. Being sent to voicemail after two rings, or going straight to voicemail, shouldn't require any social explanation, just a technical one.

Posted by Surfing Madness (# 11087) on :

I've had many falling's out with my mum, due to refusing to sit with her in church. (We don't usually go to the same Church.) If I sit next to her she will insist on talking to me regularly through the service, in what she thinks is a whisper, but what i think is embarrassingly loud. It drives me up the wall. I'm in Church to worship God/ learn more about God not chat to my mum!!!

Posted by ken (# 2460) on :

quote:
Originally posted by chukovsky:
There are still loads of places in the UK - and a greater proportion of the area of the US and Oz I would have thought - where mobiles don't work.

I went to Eskdale in the Lake District with some friends last summer. The first week of the World Cup. Stayed in tents in a field behind a pub. Nice people, lovely scenery, great beer. Only downside was the weather. Boringly hot and dry.

No mobiles of course. There was a road bridge about eight miles away where you could just about get a network if you faced in the right direction and were particularly lucky. Otherwise it was drive to Sellafield or Barrow. Nuclear power stations and major military dockyards tend to have connectivity.

Posted by Pulsator Organorum Ineptus (# 2515) on :

In my family, when we hear people talking loudly in cut-glass accents we look at each other knowingly and say "coddled cod".

This arises from an incident in a hotel restaurant in the Scottish Highlands when I was a teenager. There was a couple at another table, he older and rather reminiscent of the Major from Fawlty Towers, she much younger and dressed to kill. After some preliminary conversation conducted fortissimo and in accents more at home in Oxford than in Wester Ross, she proceeded to read out the menu to him. It included a main course of "Cod in a coddled egg sauce". When she came to this item she became even more animated than before.

"Oh, darling, they've got your favourite!"

"My favourite, darling, really?"

"Yes, darling, your favourite: coddled cod!"

"Coddled cod?"

"Yes, darling, coddled cod, your favourite."

"Oh, how splendid! Yes, I think I'll have that. yes, coddled cod."

etc, etc.

After she had read another couple of items to the assembled gathering, she exclaimed:

"Oh, it isn't coddled cod at all, darling!"

"Really darling? Not coddled cod?"

"No, it's says 'Cod in a coddled egg sauce'."

"Oh, so not coddled cod at all then. How disappointing!"

By which time the other diners were stuffing their napery into their mouths to suppress their guffaws.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

That must be the same couple I saw in a restaurant in Geneva airport - except she was a bit older by then. In the midst of a perfectly simple system - pick up tray, select cold components from buffet, approach hot counter, indicate to chef desired combination of meat and veg, get served, proceed etc - they were wandering about, shouting - 'Where's the main course? What? No, I haven't got cutlery. Where? Oh, there? What do I want? I don't know. What have they got? What's that? Can't understand a word. I'll have that. No, I've changed my mind. What's that? Eh? Where's the salt? I thought you had the cutlery'.

It was as if they had never encountered a self-service restaurant in their lives. Maybe they never had.

[ 01. November 2006, 07:51: Message edited by: Firenze ]

Posted by geroff (# 3882) on :

Getting away from mobile phones a minute.
I work in an open plan, fairly quiet design office.
Why oh why do people insist on yelling at each other across the room instead of using the phone or going to their desk. This is usually secretary yelling "do you want this phone call?"

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