Cell phone users in theaters, etc...

[TubaRay]

When im at a theatre, and need to use the bathroom, i go to a bathroom

Beats the alternative!

...for everyone involved!

[MaryAnn]

Weelllll......I have long noted that in the good ole USA that one of our closely held Freedoms seems to be The Freedom To Make As Much Noise As We Want And To Hell With You If You Don't Like It.

I've experienced this all the way from inconsiderate roommates to inconsiderate neighbors to inconsiderate movie-goers and even cubicle mates. Particularly I LOVE the response that I see when someone says "I want to give a wild party until 2 a.m. but my neighbors complain" that urges the party-giver to "just invite the neighbors."

Not realizing (or caring, probably) that maybe the neighbors have a health condition, a small baby that needs sleep, or whatever else, and they deserve the consideration of being allowed to go to bed at a decent hour. I always long for the karmic payback to the partiers when they are older and have a migraine, that their own inconsiderate neighbors think that if the noise is a problem they should just come join the party.

There are times that I really regret not owning a 12 gauge.

MA

[SplatterTone]

There are times that I really regret not owning a 12 gauge.

Get a portable planer and keep a supply of boards to run through it.



Then there is the ultimate noise maker: A chipper-shredder with a good supply of 2-inch branches to shove into it.

[Rick Denney]

The Faraday cage, as far as I can tell, is legal, because it is passive. The jammers and such are illegal, but obtainable...

The doctor comment is valid. I imagine anyone who works for emergency services would need to have active cell service as much as possible. Perhaps they could make some theaters anti-cell phone and others as they are now.

It's easy not to be an offender without someone else blocking or jamming the service to which some people must be connected.

I always sit on the aisle. If I get a call, nobody knows but me. A discreet peak at the screen of the phone tells me whether it's important or not (urgent does not equal important, by the way). If it is, I leave the theater and call them back. To anyone else in the theater, I might be going to the restroom. If they are bothered by that, they should wait for the movie to come out on DVD. A certain understanding that movies are a public place is, it seems to me, a reasonable requirement.

If a person is truly disruptive, it doesn't matter what the cause unless they are having a medical emergency. But even if they are, fetching the manager is Step 1. Getting a refund is Step 2. If enough people did that, the theaters would put ushers in the theaters to ask disruptive people to leave.

But that will probably never happen. People won't pursue it, and thus theater managers won't have to care about it.

That's why I watch movies at home.

(The best line I ever heard was when a friend of mine and I went to a symphony concert in San Antonio many years ago. The lady sitting next to us was riffling the pages of her program with her thumb, absent-mindedly. After being non-responsive to several stern glances from my friend, he finally leaned over and told her, "Ma'am, when I have a record that sounds like that, I take it back.")

Rick "remembering--barely--when movie theaters had ushers" Denney