Mysterious Encounters
Jun. 21st, 2019 02:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rheasilviaA little while ago, I was sitting in my favorite tea house, happily drinking tea and reading Guardian fanfic on my tablet, as you do. The woman at a neighboring table kept casting annoyed glances my way without ever quite looking at me. I wondered about this briefly and then ignored it.
Eventually, she came up to me and spoke thusly: "Excuse me, but your cell phone has been in my back this whole time. Are you going to be done using it soon?"
I blinked at her and eloquently replied: "... what now? My cell phone is doing what...?"
Upon which she decided that further conversation was useless, disgustedly snorted and shook her head, and sped to the counter to pay. She hastily collected her things and rushed out the door, never deigning to look at me again and leaving her tea half-drunk.
The waitress and I theorize that she was bothered by the radiation/bad cell phone vibes/whatnot coming off of my tablet. Incidentally, my tablet was on airplane mode, so it wasn't sending anything into her back. Also, the tea house has wifi (which I assume she was blissfully ignorant of). Also, good luck escaping cell phone radiation anywhere in this city...
Eventually, she came up to me and spoke thusly: "Excuse me, but your cell phone has been in my back this whole time. Are you going to be done using it soon?"
I blinked at her and eloquently replied: "... what now? My cell phone is doing what...?"
Upon which she decided that further conversation was useless, disgustedly snorted and shook her head, and sped to the counter to pay. She hastily collected her things and rushed out the door, never deigning to look at me again and leaving her tea half-drunk.
The waitress and I theorize that she was bothered by the radiation/bad cell phone vibes/whatnot coming off of my tablet. Incidentally, my tablet was on airplane mode, so it wasn't sending anything into her back. Also, the tea house has wifi (which I assume she was blissfully ignorant of). Also, good luck escaping cell phone radiation anywhere in this city...
no subject
Date: 2019-06-21 01:03 pm (UTC)I find the radiation fear totally plausible after that story, but wow, I'm amazed that's still a thing and that the people freaking out about it manage to leave the house. O__o I think the last time I had someone freak out about cell phones in their vicinity was in, like, 2010...
"In my back"... LOL!
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Date: 2019-06-21 01:28 pm (UTC)"In my back"...
It was confusing! :-) And I have never had anyone freak out about cell phones in real life before, not even back when they were new, rare and special. I honestly had no idea what she meant.
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Date: 2019-06-21 01:36 pm (UTC)I lived for a while with some very Öko people, and had a sort-of-aunt who was easily panicked about her pacemaker, that's where I encountered this in the wild! But, ages ago. I think even that sort-of-aunt now has a mobile phone. *g*
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Date: 2019-06-21 01:49 pm (UTC)I've been wondering how I would have reacted had she bothered to explain, and I suppose she was right to storm off, because I would just have referred to the airplane mode (which she probably would not have understood) - and of course I had an actual cell phone in my bag.
The waitress said she's a regular (and is always odd). Let's hope she never finds out about the tea house's wifi hotspot. ;-)
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Date: 2019-06-21 02:09 pm (UTC)Thank you. :)))
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Date: 2019-06-21 02:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-06-21 03:35 pm (UTC)