So, the cell phone rang during a funeral...

Re: So, the cell phone rang during a funeral...

cell phones at funerals aren't really new.

Re: So, the cell phone rang during a funeral...

Somehow that doesn't make feel any better.

Re: So, the cell phone rang during a funeral...

I was in an office speaking with a business associate about important business when his desk phone rang and he took a personal call. I waited a few minutes, but when it looked like it could go on inapropriately long I used my cell phone to call his. He hung up his call and took mine! : ) heh!

Re: So, the cell phone rang during a funeral...

Yeah - had a guy do the same thing in church this past Sunday. Rings the first time, takes him forever to fumble it out of a pocket and pick up and hang up on the call, but he didn't turn it off - because it rang again about five minutes later and this time, sure enough, he took the call. I'm starting to think it might have been the same guy.

I was sitting in the waiting room at a diagnostic lab at 7:20 Monday morning, waiting to get blood drawn for some routine tests. There was a big sign at every check-in window saying "No cell phones, PLEASE!"

There was also some yutz talking non-stop on a cell phone. The walkie-talkie style, so we all got to hear both sides of the conversation. (Which was in Spanish, so I have no idea what it was about.) He also had a second cell phone clipped to his belt, and at one point it rang, he answered it, and then went back to his walkie talkie conversation. I really find it hard to believe that whatever was happening was so vital that it couldn't have waited until he was finished getting stuck and drained or peeing in a cup or whatever. Later, when I was in the exam room getting stuck and drained myself, I heard a steady stream of what sounded like muffled English coming from the room next door, but when the phlebotomist arrived she rolled her eyes, nodded towards the other room and made a remark about people and their cell phones. (Mine was in the car, which is where I usually leave it when going into doctor's offices, church, etc. I don't see much point in carrying the thing into someplace where I'm going to have to turn it off and where I'm going to spend a relatively limited amount of time anyway.

I mean, we did manage to exist for millions of years without cell phones and being available to one another instantly, 24/7, right? As much as I love the convenience of cell phones (and the safety and security aspects of them) I have no trouble getting rid of the leash from time to time.


Oh, well played, sir!

Regards,

Joe

Re: So, the cell phone rang during a funeral...

The sad part is that many people no longer seem embarrassed when their phone rings when it should have been turned off.

Re: So, the cell phone rang during a funeral...

I keep my cell phone on vibrate 100% of the time. Never use the ringer and never pick up a call if I am currently talking to somebody, in a movie, out to dinner or such. Its just rude and indecent behavior.

Re: So, the cell phone rang during a funeral...

Who are the people who abuse cell phones anyway? A country's president needing to be informed of a worsening diplomatic crisis? A transplant surgeon being told a donor heart has been found and he must get to the hospital at once? Nope - it always seems to be some tedious little prole with no life.

True story. A few years ago I was at a garage waiting for a minor repair to be done to my car. I was sitting in the customers' waiting area with a couple of other normal guys and a loudmouth who was having a series of megaphone volume cell phone conversations about how he was going to Germany on a business trip (to put this in context - I'm a Brit, and a trip to Germany from the UK really isn't all that big a deal). He was not only getting on my nerves and the other customers', but also the staffs'. Anyway, I had to have a chat with one of the staff about the repair and whilst we were talking, the member of staff asked me would I mind if he delivered me a [fake] phone message in a few minutes time, and could I keep a straight face? I went back to my seat and the guy was making yet another phone call about this trip to Germany. Sure enough, a few minutes later the staff member came across and said to me 'excuse me professor, but your personal secretary has been on the phone. She says that the Bishop's office phoned to say he'll be about half an hour late. However, she says you can still accommodate the meeting and make the Tokyo flight'. I did manage to keep a straight face and said that was fine, and thanked him for his trouble. Megaphone voice guy suddenly started speaking in a quiet voice and stopped making phone calls.

Are you sure you want to be sharing this information with us?

Re: So, the cell phone rang during a funeral...

My mom is a nurse. At 75 years old she's heard and seen it all. She works in an office with a no cell policy. She once had a guy who took his out in the middle of a prep for a physical, answering it as my mom took his blood pressure. Mom promptly stopped, said "Ok, you can follow me", then led him out of the exam room and back out into the lobby. When he realized where she was leading him, he asked what she was doing and Mom told him he was obviously too busy to be at the doctor's office, so she was going to call the next patient. He sat there dumbfounded until told he could make another appointment at the desk. The docs backed her 100%.

Re: So, the cell phone rang during a funeral...

Jeeze.. I think a funeral is probably the rudest place someone could use a cell phone... well.. maybe during sex... that'd be up there too.

The thing is, I work for a cellular provider and I'm so self-conscious about taking/making a call around people. If I'm in a restaurant, I'll get up and leave the dining area or even with a group of friends, I'll step away from the group.

Re: So, the cell phone rang during a funeral...

I'm just about the same - my cell is almost always on vibrate. I don't understand people not setting it to vibrate after the first faux pax.

Re: So, the cell phone rang during a funeral...

Answering during sex would be rude.

Re: So, the cell phone rang during a funeral...

Unless you're having phone-sex with a third person.

Re: So, the cell phone rang during a funeral...

Especially if you're at a funeral.

Re: So, the cell phone rang during a funeral...

But what if you're trying to call the deceased?

Jay

Re: So, the cell phone rang during a funeral...

Would that be the "Dead Friends & Family Plan"?

Re: So, the cell phone rang during a funeral...

21st Century version of a 'dead ringer'

Thank you, I'll be here all week.

Re: So, the cell phone rang during a funeral...

Well, if he answers, I guess that's OK.

Joe

Re: So, the cell phone rang during a funeral...

They probably bury some with their cell phones nowadays.

--
H

Re: So, the cell phone rang during a funeral...

Isn't that exactly the time you should set it to vibrate?

Re: So, the cell phone rang during a funeral...

I'd be worried about getting a call.

Although I'm sure you're right. People get buried with all sorts of sentimental or symbolic items, and I'm sure cell phones have made the list. (My dad was buried with a picture of his great-grandchildren, a pack of playing cards and a cigar. )

And some are probably buried with working cell phones for fear of being buried alive, an modern update of the old practice of using bells* or flags or other devices controlled by a string or wire from within the casket to call for help if needed. (This as a big and not entirely unfounded fear, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries. George Washington famously insisted that his servants keep his body above ground for three days to ensure he was dead before he was buried.)

Regards,

Joe

* And before anyone brings it up - no this is not the origin of the phrase "saved by the bell", which arose much later and comes from the world of professional boxing.

Re: So, the cell phone rang during a funeral...

Want something worse (or at least dumber) than answering a cell phone at a funeral? How about refusing to get off a cell phone call even in the middle of a bank robbery? When you're the bank robber? (With security cam video goodness!)



Joe

Re: So, the cell phone rang during a funeral...

I've seen a few of these devices in some of the older cemeteries. Morbidly fascinating area of history. Mortsafes are also pretty cool to find.

Re: So, the cell phone rang during a funeral...

cell phones have become such a pet peeve of mine.

At work, members are always standing in line gabbing a way, completely ignoring everything going on around them. I've actually gone as far as taking someone else in line ahead of them, because they were being so rude and would not get off the damn phone.

I carry a phone at all times, but there are places I will not have the ringer on and that includes, but is not limited to, movie theaters, hospitals, restaurants, friends homes, funerals, doctor/dental appointments, schools and so on. It's just rude!

People have become so phone obsessed that I cringe when I hear that stupid little Nokia ringtone or some other stupid ringtone.

Re: So, the cell phone rang during a funeral...

If I left my phone on vibrate all of the time, I would end up missing a lot of calls, texts, etc. I do try to put it on silent in the situations being discussed in this thread and have never had it ring in one of these situations (knock on wood), but it has in some others that I wished I had remembered to put it on silent.

Re: So, the cell phone rang during a funeral...

The problem with "vibrate" is that even that setting makes some noise - moreso when the phone in question is clipped to a belt and adjacent to a belt-buckle or in a handbag with the loose change, or on a desktop where it wanders around like one of those little plastic lineman in the tabletop "football" games that some of us remember. I heard phones on vibrate from 15 or 20 feet away in a fairly busy office. And have you ever heard one start shaking in the middle of a quiet moment in a movie, or during a quiet passage at a concert? Makes me wonder what the point is sometimes.

And don't even get me started on ringtones. One of my co-workers has two of the most annoying songs on record as the primary ring tone on her phones (one business, one personal.) I can't name either of them, but they are classical pieces that have been used as "sinister" music in so many horror movies, commercials and Halloween TV news reports that they are both now musical cliches. Worse yet, she's programmed a number of other tunes (a different set for each phone, of course) for various things like text messages and e-mails, and even for calls from different friends and family memebers. For some reason she has both phones set to ring and vibrate. And finally, despite the fact that she gets a ton of calls all day long, she almost never remembers to carry either of the phones with her. Instead both phones stay here in the office we share, for my listening pleasure. The personal phone sits in her purse, hanging over the back of her chair, and the work phone sits on her desk, gradually migrating from one side to the other throughout the day as it rings and vibrates along.

Another of our co-workers has a faux Andrews Sisters group singing "You've got a call, you've got a call. Better answer the phone 'cause you've got a call" in close harmony. Evidently just a regular ring wouldn't be enough to convey this information to him.

Finally there's Mr. Macho Man who let his wife program his phone and has no idea that the tune that plays everytime he gets a call is the theme from Sex and the City.

I'm with Fran Liebowitz when it comes to banning stupid options that have no reason for their existance. I'd like to extend her list:

Ice Cubes That Come in a Choice of Interesting Shapes: Cubes are fine. Half-moons or little drums are acceptable if they're being mass-produced by a machine. But flowers belong in one's lapel, not in one's borboun.

Cigarettes That Come in a Choice of Interesting Colors: White was good enough for Edward R. Murrow, it's good enough for you.

I'd throw in:

Phones That Come with a Choice of Interesting Songs, Sounds and Human Voices in Place of More Conventional Alerts: I want a ringing phone that sounds like a phone ringing. Where can I download that?

Regards,

Joe

Re: So, the cell phone rang during a funeral...

If a student's phone rings whilst I'm lecturing I stop talking and tell the whole class we're going to play 'name that tune'. Strangely enough, after about week 2, I have no problem with people accidentally leaving their phones switched on in class.

Re: So, the cell phone rang during a funeral...

Some ringtones are annoying but some are quite funny, depending on where you are.

The first time I heard the "cat meowing" one was in a bank and I wondered which asshole brought a cat into the bank. Another time in the bank a woman's phone started playing an old Motown classic and everyone in the line started dancing.

My co-worker is from New York and is of Sicilian descent so, naturally, her phone plays the Godfather theme. Whenever it plays we all shout: "Someone just got whacked!"

My phone just goes "brring, brring" like an old phone.

Re: So, the cell phone rang during a funeral...

Actually, humans have existed for only about 250,000 years.