Harris on Cell Phone
Former Mayor of Oakland Elihu Harris was at the expensive Fleur-de-Lys Restaurant last night and seemed intent on answering his mobile phone every ten or fifteen minutes and boorishly jabbering on it like a rube. While I actually don’t mind people chatting on the phone in a restaurant (since they are chatting anyway) it’s the ringtones that are insulting. After the first call (he took four that I counted, my wife says more) you’d think he’d either put the phone on vibrate or that someone at the table would tell hime to put the phone on vibrate. But no. RIIIINNNNNGGG!!
Curiously when the ex-mayor of San Francisco, Willie Brown, came to the table to schmooze Harris got no calls. As soon as Brown left the phone rang again. This is unbelieveable to me. Of course he had to make some comment about Brown after he left.
Last year the Peralta Community College District made Harris the district’s permanent chancellor. From what I saw he’s an apparent blowhard and dominated the table with one loud story after another laughing at his own material. That was until Brown arrived and he shut up for a while.
Harris seemed pre-occupied by the Peralta pensions and was telling of some way to pump up the system. I wonder what that was all about. He seemed to be laughing a lot about it.
Of course none of this would have been mentioned if he had put his phone on vibrate since he wouldn’t have drawn so much attention to himself.
Fleur-de-Lys is the most expensive restaurant in San Francisco, by the way. I wonder if the School District picked up the tab? I would assume (hope) not.
“Fleur-de-Lys is the most expensive restaurant in San Francisco, by the way. I wonder if the School District picked up the tab? I would assume (hope) not.”
We could always file a FOIA request and find out.
Gawd that story was too funny! I need to use that word “boorish” now!
My pet peeve, besides clueless cellphone drivers, is loudtalking cellphone people in the supermarket checkout line who are too busy to put the damn phone down to pay the cashier for their groceries and get the hell out of everyone else’s way! Idiots!
Wait a minute, since you were there at “the most expensive restaurant in San Francisco…”, what did you order???? Hehe…
You are assuming he knows how to turn off the ring and go to vibrate. My guess is he doesn’t have a clue how to program a cell phone.
My feelings about cell phones are the same as my feelings about children in public. I don’t care if you talk on your cell phone, any more than I care if you talk to yourself or talk to someone at your table. What I do mind is if you talk too loud. It’s becoming too common not to be able to talk to someone at one’s own table because some idiot thinks that his cell phone is some sort of a status symbol (??) and therefore he must blurt out his oh so important business for all to hear.
A couple other tangents:
(1) It’s o.k. by me if anyone wants to outlaw the loud walkie-talkie beeps. (And why in the hell are we still using the term “walkie-talkie” in the year 2005??)
(2) My favorite is when people choose to bring their cell phones inside and then *not* answer them when they go off, letting them ring on and on.
(3) I do have one suggestion regarding the guys at the counters who can’t seem to decide whether they want to communicate with the clerk or finish their phone call. Ask them point blank, “Sir, are you in or are you out?”
K B…
“And why in the hell are we still using the term “walkie-talkie” in the year 2005??”
Why should we replace a perfectly good word merely because the year has changed?! That makes no f-ing sense at all. Should we toss out dictionaries every year and start from scratch?! God that is so f-ing asinine I can hardly believe someone took the time to write it.
Ugh. Rude cell phone use…how did I manage to read this post while actually hearing rude cell phone use at the same time?? I work in a public library, and despite our efforts to stop it, loutish cell phone chatting continues unabated. I have actually been in the position of helping a patron whose phone rang. They almost always blow me off for the cell phone call. I deal with it by stopping all work until they get off the phone and look at me again. If there are people in line behind them, I just move on to the next person. If they notice and get off the phone, I make them wait until there is no one else waiting, then we start over from the beginning. Mwahhahahaa! Asking them to take their calls into the lobby usually earns you a long-suffering sigh, a classic eye roll and a humph, but usually they take it outside. Grrr! Also, I was in a minor car accident caused by the preoccupied chick in her giant truck behind me yammering to her husband on her cell and ramming my bumper in slow moving traffic. I had the pleasure of a) taking out *my* cell phone to call the cops and b) watching the cop lay into her about her cell phone use.
Ima FIsh..
K B: “And why in the hell are we still using the term “walkie-talkie” in the year 2005??”
Fish: Why should we replace a perfectly good word merely because the year has changed?!
Ima Fish,
Where did I say that the year had ANYTHING to do with it? It was a dumb term then; it’s a dumb term now. Now, go and enjoy your “walkie-talkie.”
Do not think these ppl understand the basics of behaving at an expensive eatery …
Its easier to say ‘walkie talkie’ than ‘two way radio’. We still use the word here in Portugal. Everyone knows what it is, even if nobody uses them anymore – the airwaves are clear these days, which is good for those of us who DO use them 🙂
K.B. – “Sir, are you in or are you out?” GOOD ONE!
I still wanna know what Dvorak ate at the frou frou restaurant…