21 May 2011

hello?

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does anyone use the telephone anymore?

I do look-
checking out caller id-why didn't someone think of this sooner?

a couple of calls from CA. Now who could that be-yet not sure if I really want to start a chat there.

I wonder who Private Caller is? but not so much that I answer.
I prefer email-of course those that know me well-
Well know that.


This lobster telephone is one of six all white versions that Dali made in association with the pioneering British interior designer Syrie Maugham (1879-1955) for the home of the surrealist collector Edward James.Minneapolis Institute of Arts, William Hood Dunwoody Fund



Save your paddles for the hands-I know emails are impersonal, but I am not-So my emails are fully thought out and considerate, kind and well composed.
In my postings here and there- I often abandon proper capitalization and grammar, I do know it -understand it-
But I prefer  dialog on paper-
that is how we speak-this is how I write.


Remember the days of party lines?  they were shared lines in your neighborhood-imagine that! My brothers,  cousins and I called one of the elderly ladies-old maids in the neighborhood "Clickin Annie."
If you know of party lines- a click in on a conversation was a way hurry  another conversation  along -albeit a rude one.  A stealth listening in on others conversations was another party line taboo. I never did either-but I was not an old maid then-only a little innocent.  That I missed anything by not participating in these activities I have no doubt of-but when one is an old maid one has to take one's pleasures stealthily. Taboo or not.
It does beg the question- should be answering the phone more often?

I suppose I miss things- I'll never know-I'm not quite  an old maid there yet. Hush.



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13 comments:

  1. I must tell you I cannot abide using the phone for conversation - not a new thing for me. My cell is used mostly for texting and is actually rarely used as a phone at all.

    I like email but can, I hear, be more curt than is approved of!

    ReplyDelete
  2. You sound like me and my struggles with phones. But I do use my cell quite a bit, but always Icheck the caller ID and squirm with indecision if I do not know the caller. Additionally, I express myself through the written word much more effectively and with more integrity than with the spoken word--I love the feel of the letters clicking away under my fingers and then magically showing up on my screen.
    Have a great Sunday. Mary

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  3. I do remember party lines. Someone was always on ours for an extended period of time. Picking it up did not hurry the person at all. Finally, I needed to know - (I was maybe 10 at the time) Who was this rude person? It only took me a few minutes of eavesdropping to discover that it was coming from my best friend's house and that it was her teen-age sister. Party lines ended shortly after that.
    I had a friend -30 some years ago - who lived on the upper East side who had a land phone she said once belonged to Jackie O. (Who knows?) It was covered in real leopard skin. I'll take the lobster.
    Haven't had a land phone in years and like you, I enjoy writing e-mails.
    All the best,
    Catherine

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm a phone throwback. I have two rotary phones in my house -- one wall, one desk (and that's it). Hence, no caller ID. I do remember party lines. I also tried to re-instate the "Riverside-478" method of phone numbers, but no one would play with me. People are also perplexed by my busy signal if they call and I happen to be on the line. "I didn't know that still existed" they say.

    I don't get lots of calls, but I do like to talk on the phone, tethered to the instrument and unable to multi-task. I also love to dial them. I'm a phone fan.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I keep an Ettore Sottsass telephone in case David John ever calls, but he never does; and I keep two cells of different services, depending upon which way the wind blows in the Piedmont. I detest the latter and I love the acoustic of the former, but one can't afford to use it, because its number is embedded in my interlocutors' cells, and they always call when I'm away. But really I just called to say I loved the posting.

    ReplyDelete
  6. When reaching out to dear friends, I prefer the much maligned phone. There's nothing like hearing your loved one's voice on the other end of the line and engaging in dialogue whether rousing, humorous, comforting, inciting....Viva the telephone!

    ReplyDelete
  7. dearest Madame Greige- they must be very dear.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I love that you write as a conversation and always "got that!" I spend much less time on the phone and it's always 'unplugged' after 8pm. It's been quite a while since my phone was an 'aphrodisiac'... maybe I need to find a lobster phone! Love your honesty. ; )

    ReplyDelete
  9. Blue- right with you, as you know!

    Bruce- we'll see!

    Mary- I can well relate, I don't check the phone however-my mother,we live together- does. it has to be generational. at 81 the phone is still revered to some extent, however she is a wiz at the computer too.

    Catharine- it does make for good stories! so much has changed in the world of communications, if not for email we would be on the phones at this moment likely

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  10. Catharine-hard to imagine Jackie with a covered leopard skin phone!

    Townhouse- oh my! I saw yours in the hall by the way. being tethered to a phone doesn't appeal to me, though I see what you are saying-writing- I
    may ,may reconsider an occasional call.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Laurent-with the winds in the Piedmont and the valleys and still the dead zones-no wonder smoke signals aren't still employed. The phone was once considered sacred & a luxury-now just another throw away. if you open up the lines to your Ettore Sottsass fon - I would call, Just don't answer.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Barbara,
    Apparently many still use the phone as an 'aphrodisiac'... maybe it is time to reconsider, yet I have to say Don't go there! stay off the beach. Lobsters beware.

    ReplyDelete

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