Some "Daily" Rant! Cellphone Users Provoke Anger.

Good grief, the Old Grouch has not posted a daily rant since December 7! Can this mean that O.G. and friends are not angry about anything anymore? Hardly! Is it a good excuse to say that O.G. has been so angry that he can't even post about it? Well, I tried.

Movie Grouch has some rants that follow posthaste:

[from Movie Grouch]

CELLPHONES, AND THE PEOPLE WHO USE THEM, CIRCA 2009.

1. What is it with people who maintain a snail's pace while telephoning
and texting in the middle of the grocery aisles, preventing other
customers from doing their business?

2. What are we to do about people on their cellphones ignoring and
crossing against lights, creating a real pedestrian nightmare? A NYC
bus driver told me cellphone idiots were his #1 nightmare.

3. How selfish are those people who walk multiple dogs while on their
cellphone, not only paying no attention whatever to the animals, but
also blocking the sidewalks for passage by anyone else?

4. Have you experienced the insulting nonsense of being at the local
cinema, and not only does the idiot next to you or in front of you
take cellphone calls during the movie, but the moment the end titles
commence, the irritating lights of Blackberries, iPhones and other
instruments distract the attention of those of us who actually pay
attention and read movie credits. Are you so important and your
affairs so transcendent that you cannot even wait until you leave the
cinema?

5. How about waiting for a bus in either the rain or cold and the
person in front dawdles endlessly while telephoning and texting,
totally ignoring the line of customers.

6. Recently I attended a magical performance by the New York
Philharmonic conducted by the hottest name in classical music 2009,
Venezuelan maestro Gustavo Dudamel, of Mahler's fifth symphony.
Despite repeated loudspeaker admonitions to turn off cellphones,
etc., out of deference to both audience and performers, a cellphone
rang loudly just before the downbeat on the sublime Adagietto.
Fortunately Dudamel held the moment and signaled for the miscreant to
please turn off the offending instrument. But another cellphone rang
later during the same movement! Whatever happened to the notion of
citizen's arrest for crimes against mankind?

7. I once admonished an aggressively even offensively loud bus
passenger to please lower her voice during a typically trite
cellphone conversation, saying in exasperation, "You are offensive to
all the passengers around you." Her response of course was an even
louder, "SO ARE YOU!"

8. Why is it that the bulk of cellphone calls on the NYC transit
system inform the recipient of the address of transmission and assure
another call from the next destination stop? What is the purpose of
these calls? My favorite is "I'm at 14th Street; I'll call you again
when I get to 23rd Street."

9. My mother told me of a rebellious moment wherein one bus passenger
asked another to please lower her voice on cellphone, proclaiming
"You're really not that interesting!" to the applause of all the
other passengers on that bus.

10. Whatever happened to common courtesy and sensitivity to the
feelings of your fellow citizens?

[a bit later ... a new email]
I incorrectly figured that sending the transmission before
heading for the Phil insured that nothing could be added to the rant
I e-mailed you. How stupid can I get? It was one of those programming
initiatives to gain younger audiences for classical music, wherein
the first half is about sources and references in the piece (Alec
Baldwin was a nervous but impeccable narrator) -- in this case about
Brahms's first serenade -- and the second half an actual performance
of the piece by a famous conductor, in this case Riccardo Muti. Well,
don't you know -- the creep in front of me turned on his BlackBerry
every five minutes to check something, with a bilious blue glare in
the eyes of everybody nearby. When I could not stand it one more
time, I tapped him on the shoulder and hissed, "WILL YOU PLEASE STOP
DOING THAT?" He turned around and indignantly whispered, "What's your
problem? I've got the sound turned off." Not wanting to engage in
fisticuffs in Avery Fisher Hall, I could only stare at him with my
most contemptuous glare, while his unfortunate girlfriend or wife
pretended nothing was happening. I anticipated accusing him of having
the manners of a pig after the applause, but the couple left
immediately after the performance. Whatever happened to nice manners?
Call me an old grouch, but technology has made us a nation of pigs
and monsters. Can we change back before the full moon?

[a few days later]
You may want to add this from tonight: The obnoxious bozo on my left at a celebratory bicentennial concert for Felix Mendelssohn's birthday slept through the first half, including a riveting performance of the violin concerto by Anne-Sophie Mutter. During the second half -- a rare chance to experience "The First Walpurgis Night" cantata -- this pig turned on his cellphone to check messages, making offensive noise and flashing irritating blue light. I wanted to throttle him.