Friday, August 05, 2005

Man Feels Lobotomized By Loss Of Cell Phone

A man in a coffee shop last night was telling his friend about a recent business trip on which he'd apparently lost his cell phone in a cab on the way to the airport. At first he hadn't felt all that worried about it, but he said that then the ramifications started to hit him like waves. He realized that he no longer had a way to coordinate pickup with his ride on the other end of the flight. When he decided that he could simply call ahead and tell his ride he'd be waiting at a certain spot at a certain time, he realized that he didn't actually know the person's phone number. In fact, he didn't know anyone's phone number. They were all just names in his directory. He said that he went in and sat down at a pay phone and realized that the only numbers he had committed to memory were his home number, where his wife was away, and the numbers of friends and family he'd learned long ago. Further, because most of his friends and people who might be useful in this situation also used cell phones exclusively, none of them had listed numbers, making directory assistance useless. He said that despite being an educated and successful man of almost 50, he'd ended up making a collect call to his mother for help.
What did your mom say about that, asked the friend.
She said it was odd that when I had my phone I never called, but the minute I lost it she heard from me.

2 comments:

Wyrfu said...

A modern fable! Oh, the irony...

Anonymous said...

What scares me is what people put in the brain cells that used to hold information like important phone numbers. I fear it is things like the birthdays of the contestants on American Idol or the favorite ice cream flavor of some celebrity.

What he should have done is call his cell phone, it is possible some honest person found it. But, it is altogether likely he doesn't know that number either unless he looks at the phone.

In any case, you should always call your mom, someday you might not be able to when you want to.