Well, it looks like Andrew didn’t come to his senses last night and change all of his passwords, so… I’m still here. (That’s a musical comedy reference, BTW. I [heart] Sondheim.) I’m blogging to you live from Victrola, a coffee shop on Seattle’s Capitol Hill. Victrola made the news a month or two ago when it yanked its wireless service on the weekends. My paper, The Stranger, covered the story; the, ahem, NYT followed up on it a few weeks later.
-posted by Dan.
YACK YACK YACK: Victrola yanked its free wireless service on the weekends because so many people were camping out all day in the cafe, taking up tables, that it prevented people from wandering in, having a cup of coffee and, say, actually making eye contact and chatting with other human beings. It was a smart move; although I’m a frequent Wi-Fi user, I avoided the place on the weekends. But here’s what Victrola-and other cafes-need to target next: Cell phone abusers. It’s one thing to be sitting in a crowded café, checking your email, and quickly take a call. But there are people with laptops and cell phones that treat this café, and all cafes, as extensions of their offices.
Take, for example, the jackass sitting behind me as I type these words. He’s shouting into his cell phone about some work issues, and has been for, oh, 20 minutes now. Then the inevitable came out of his mouth: “Yes, I’ll be on the Microsoft campus later today.” Of course you will, assferbrains. If someone is behaving badly in public in Seattle, it’s almost always one of two local types: The Microsofties who think they own this city (for the record: You people own REDMOND, not Seattle), or a public drunk. I prefer the drunks, frankly. They get tossed out of cafes.
-posted by Dan.
TERROR CELLS: The thought of people being able to use cell phones on airplanes during flight is almost too horrible to contemplate. But I understand why the airlines are considering it: They’ve run out of new ways to make flying unpleasant. Long lines, inexplicable delays, lost baggage, no food, filthy airplanes, unhappy workers (is anyone else worried about planes being flown by despondent pilots who’ve had their pensions stolen from them?)-allowing people to use their cells phones is the only way for the airlines to freshen up the hell they’ve created for us. Once they allow people to use cell phones on airplanes during flight I expect we’ll see a lot more incidents like this.
-posted by Dan.
The Dish 