The missing conversant
Here's a guest posting from Jeff:
A WireLESS conversation on the Red Line yesterday evening, 4 Feb 2005.
At about 7:30 pm I board the Red Line at Grand heading North to Loyola. At Chicago, a neatly dressed gent boards and stands in the vestibule chatting briskly with, I assumed to be a smaller shorter person of whom he's blocking my view (He's facing forward with his back against the glass partition).
As the train squeals around the corner towards Clark/Division he's nearly yelling at the top of his lungs "WHAT?! I CAN'T HEAR YOU! HANG ON A SEC! HUH?!". I'm wondering why he doesn't lean toward his assumed companion -- I mean yammering nut-bags really don't ride the train. Really.
Anyway, he loses his balance a little and shifts to face outward. No companion. Nobody. Upon further examination he's yelling into a cell phone's hands-free headset. I nearly roared in laughter. One, there's no cellular service in the subway -- yet, and two, the cord to the headset was dangling and not plugged in.
That's great!
Posted by: Matt | March 19, 2005 at 09:23 AM
Similarly, I was in the Red Line subway with a friend who was visiting from Seattle, and the guy across from us was ranting into a cellphone-type gizmo. The conversation was quite realistic. I said to my friend out of the corner of my mouth, "Cellphones don't work in the tunnel." He thought about it for a second, then smiled and continued listening to the rant with greater amusement than before.
Posted by: Scott | March 19, 2005 at 02:40 PM