Put the crack pipe...I mean cell phone..down!

On MSNBC's website, there is a feature, Pictures of the Week. You can look at pictures from around the world and vote on which one you think is best.

One of the pictures this week, from Belarus, is of a man talking on his cell phone while sledding down a hill.

Really.

I hate and despise cell phones. No, I take that back. I hate and despise cell phone owners who think that I have the slightest interest in their lives. I hate people who talk on cell phones while walking through stores. And it's never: Oh my God! Is everyone okay? I'm on my way! No, it's more like: Oh no she didn't! I told that girl that he was no good. I'm gonna cut her ass next time I see her. Or: That is not what I ordered. I ordered 500 of the royal blue at ten dollars each, I did not want the robin's egg blue, those only cost seven dollars each.

Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!

In the stores, in the bank, in the doctor's office. In the mall, everywhere, people are walking around with those damned things glued to the sides of their heads like a junkie with a crack pipe. I saw one girl in the grocery store, we passed in three aisles and she wasn't even talking to anyone, just holding the damned thing to her head.

I even have to discuss my patients with their parents while said parent has a cell phone jammed up an ear most of the time. Put the damn thing down!

I understand the value of a cell phone for emergencies or even for business occasionally (but not like the woman in World Market who followed me all over the store, bitching about one of her real estate customers to someone on the other end of the line). Please just lower your voice. Do not carry on a conversation in your "outdoor" voice in the middle of a store.

And keep your private life private. You are not impressing me with the details of your personal life. I don't care. I don't know you.

And no, I do not own a cell phone.


Loki sez: I don't trust humans who can't abide silence.