Calling Who?

Here is an anachronism on the premises. Every time I walk past it, I glance to see if it will be Clark Kent of Dr. Who who emerges therefrom. Given the Eighties American style, my guess is the former, if either.

How long has it been since you've seen a phone booth? I can remember when a call could be initiated for five cents, American. But of course, things escalated from there.

While standing in front of WalMart waiting for BBBH to complete her business within, I saw a man using a pay phone. It is almost imperative that one feel sorry for a poor, impoverished, and desperate person who has to resort to a public facility to make a call, while hordes of people are walking past him with cell phones plastered to their heads.

Well, we have cell phones; and we actually use them on occasion. A few months ago, the bill for that month reflected an actual cost of $38.02 per minute for usage. And we can remember when we were outraged at the unconscionable charge of sixty-five cents to call a friend in the adjoining county. Three minute limit, too, to avoid overages. Oh, Progress. You are a wicked lady.

Where Everybody Knows Your Name #T

I had a seat in the doctor's office and awaited the call. Presently a young lady stepped through the door and called, "David." I was so startled, inasmuch as I am not accustomed to being called by my given name by persons at least two generations younger than I, that I did not immediately respond. Again she called, "David," and I got up and went along with her. In the exam room, the young lady had written down perhaps three of my responses to the request to list my expectations of the visit when there was a knock on the door. Another young person entered. The two ladies compared charts and concluded that my interrogator had the wrong "David." I remarked that I thought it strange that they did not page me using my surname. "Oh," the Perky Young Thing said, "we aren't allowed to use surnames due to privacy issues." I wanted to say "Poppycock," but I am a gentleman and held my peace. There is no reason on this green earth, privacy issues, legal profession, inept or heavy-handed bureaucracies, why civility should not reign in the medical workplace. This sort of tomfoolery needs to cease. What say you to the "privacy issue" of my responses being recorded on someone else's chart?