Bill Sykes' Newsletter from America.
(Christmas 2002)
An ex-Brit gives his views-(without fear
or favor)---of the American Scene
Those dreaded cell phones abusers.
 On
the way back to California I was seated in Tampa airport
awaiting my flight and was unfortunately sandwiched between
two individuals, who as soon as they sat down pulled out
their dreaded cell phone and started loud annoying conversations
oblivious to one and all surrounding them.
The person to my right was a well dressed gentleman of
the Jewish persuasion who heralded from, you guessed,
New York. From the gist of his conversation, he was obviously
in the fine and expensive clothing business and within
the next fifteen to twenty minutes I received an education
in the art of negotiating and selling his fine and expensive
wares, and of course so did anyone else within twenty
feet of his location.
The other individual was a moronic young lady who appeared
to have made the first step up the corporate ladder and
was a junior manager. It is surprising what personal information
can be obtained by the non-intentional overhearing of
a cell phone conversation. She spent fifteen minutes complaining
to an obvious superior that one of her male colleagues,
and an obvious subordinate, in her opinion was not pulling
his weight and therefore she was going to have to "talk
to him".
During my career I have had a pretty fair amount of experience
with dealing with individuals who figured that they were
destined for bigger and better things by riding on the
backs of their subordinates.
Oh how I wished that I could have been on the other end
of that phone in order to put the young lady in her place
and reminder her that what comes around goes around and
although the way up the ladder may appear to be slow and
tedious, I can assure her that the way down can be rapid
and traumatic.
The subjects of conversations heard in stores, doctor’s
offices, and practically every location you can imagine
can be anything from their previous evenings sexual experience
to what they are going to have for dinner that evening.
One of the most annoying facets of cell phones is when
they are left on in concerts, plays, restaurants and the
individual owners answer them and carry on full-blown
conversations without being censored or thrown out.
For those in the know, there are inexpensive cell phone
jammers, that will make any cell phone within a few hundred
feet of the jammer inoperative---but of course such devices
are illegal.
A major problem is the constant use of cell phones in
automobiles, and statistics are showing that there use
has lead to an increasing number of deaths in accidents
where the driver has been using a cell phone. The increase
in such deaths and severe injuries has been estimated
to have more than doubled in the last two years.
The final straw.
As I sat on the aircraft awaiting departure, a young man
came down the aisle describing into a cell phone where
he was and what he was doing to some individual on the
other end of the conversation who I’m sure didn’t
give a damn that he was walking down the center fuselage
of a McDonnell Douglas MD80 to find seat 22a or whatever.
We welcome feedback about any of the contents of these
newsletters. Please send all correspondence to bill_sykes@huddersfield1.co.uk
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