Nigerian Catering Scam

The Ill-Gotten Booty Peeve of the Week this time is cell phones and other electronic devices. No one, it seems, is content to interact solely with the people that one happens to be in the physical presence of. Unless you’re a surgeon, waiting to find out if that kidney that you’ve been waiting for to save the life of little Johnny has arrived at the hospital yet, you probably don’t need to answer the phone. You probably don’t even need to pull out the phone to look at your caller I.D. to see if the person calling is more interesting than the one you’re actually sitting down with. Now I don’t know if texting has made it better or worse. At least when you’re talking on your cell phone, you’re pretty clear that you’ve stopped conversing with the people in your physical space, and that they mean less than nothing to you, but with texting you can sort of pretend that you’re still present, while carrying on your important business with your thumbs.