The Telephone

I think that there will be, in short order, an entire generation who won't recognize an old fashioned dial phone. This is also the same generation who can't do long division without a calculator; one so fixated with pressing a keypad and expecting an answer to pop up that confronted with life without "tools", they fall apart.

The reason for my rant this morning is two-fold.  I dashed to the store this morning for coffee as we were out.  The cash register was down but would open.  I handed the cashier $10 for a $3.99 purchase. We stood there for a long time with one of us looking increasingly irritated and the other trying to do the math to make change.

He had his omnipresent i-phone out and in desperation he reached for it and asked Siri. I'm not kidding. I got out my i-phone and asked my Siri as the fella was having trouble with what was taken away from what. My Siri suggested using the calculator in the apps. I told the cashier. AHA moment. Change given.

So 137 years ago Bell filed his patent for the telephone. That's the tie in here How much better off we would be if telephones had cords and keypad entry wasn't invented.  ... and don't get me started on Siri.

Besides, if phones still had cords there wouldn't be an issue with texting while driving.  Just sayin'.

(PS.  My conducting teacher in NY, was the conductor of the premiere of this work by Minotti

https://youtu.be/CB_T1YShOX4?si=4z3wh8T3HpV32G4L