Tuesday, January 04, 2005
Phonetastic Voyage
It never ceases to amaze me how people are willing to have extremely personal phone conversations at absurdly high volumes on the train in the middle of rush hour. For instance, this morning, amid a wall-to-wall mass of people on the Brown Line, I heard a gentleman take no less than four phone calls regarding an incident of domestic abuse he was alleged to have perpetrated.
"No man, I didn’t touch her, man, you know how she talks. Man, I didn’t do it," he protested.
In a later call, however, this sequence was changed.
"No man, you know, she knows me, and she knows what to say to piss me off, man. And she just started talking, man, and she pushed me too far, you know?"
I just tried to focus on my book, but Ibsen seemed even less interesting than usual.
"And with LaTonya in the hospital and all, she ought to know better than to talk shit."
Clearly, this is why Catherine Zeta-Jones is always so fervently lobbying for more anytime minutes in those ungodly T-Mobile commercials.
I have also heard people reprimand their children, discuss their bizarre sexual proclivities, and conference with their divorce attorneys all from the comfort and safety of Chicago’s public transit system. It’s not a phone booth, people; you can be heard. So maybe save that whole murder/suicide plot for your land line, okay?
It never ceases to amaze me how people are willing to have extremely personal phone conversations at absurdly high volumes on the train in the middle of rush hour. For instance, this morning, amid a wall-to-wall mass of people on the Brown Line, I heard a gentleman take no less than four phone calls regarding an incident of domestic abuse he was alleged to have perpetrated.
"No man, I didn’t touch her, man, you know how she talks. Man, I didn’t do it," he protested.
In a later call, however, this sequence was changed.
"No man, you know, she knows me, and she knows what to say to piss me off, man. And she just started talking, man, and she pushed me too far, you know?"
I just tried to focus on my book, but Ibsen seemed even less interesting than usual.
"And with LaTonya in the hospital and all, she ought to know better than to talk shit."
Clearly, this is why Catherine Zeta-Jones is always so fervently lobbying for more anytime minutes in those ungodly T-Mobile commercials.
I have also heard people reprimand their children, discuss their bizarre sexual proclivities, and conference with their divorce attorneys all from the comfort and safety of Chicago’s public transit system. It’s not a phone booth, people; you can be heard. So maybe save that whole murder/suicide plot for your land line, okay?
