This post is titled:

Off the Hook

I'm reading a book set in the early 1980's, and one of the characters, who doesn't want to speak to her ex-husband, leaves her phone off the hook. Even in my youth, this phrase was archaic; phones no longer had actual hooks to hang the handpiece on. Do people even have phones they can leave off the hook? One of my phones can't even be unplugged, as it connects wirelessly. Even if I turn it off, the voice mail will pick up, creating the possibly false impression that I want you to leave me a message, and that I will listen to that message. How do we communicate to the world that we don't want to speak to anybody? I guess we don't.

2008.12.10 at 8:30pm EST

All text and graphics copyright © 2007-2013 Elliott C. Evans except where otherwise noted.

[Visit my web site] [Subscribe via RSS]