Comments on: Is it morally wrong to kill a texter?

By: the9th

the9th — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:49:30 +0000

Oh, all you spoilt city kids! Just imagine how much worse it is when, in some out-of-the-way burb like Waltham, MA, or Danville, PA, you’re crossing a mall parking lot to or from your car, and there are three cars converging on a parking space near your personal “20″ (remember citizens’ band radio?), they’re turning the wheel with one hand while the cell-phone is in the other–and they don’t even have a “speed-steer” crank-ball mounted on their wheel.

Or you’re in a car, navigating the crazy streets of downtown Boston & the car ahead of you, with cell-phone-grafted ear, is slowing, partly turning (oops, One Way Street!), speeding up, slowing, turning (oops, another one-way street) for several “blocks” (we don’t really have blocks in Boston; they’re not even really polygons, as perhaps only one of five or three or six sides are straight. Whaddya call that? A polygon in need of a colonic?)

I did have a classmate in collitch who, perhaps because he was only about 5′2″–low center of gravity, always walked, between classes, on the main quad’s granite curbstones–reading a book. No cuts for intersections, so that made it easier, I suppose, but in 4 years I never saw him slip, trip, falter or fall. And he was walking at a brisk pace.

By: Matt Negrin

Matt Negrin — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:05:12 +0000

When I was in Tokyo, I once rode a train where the necks of the four immediate people around me were all tilted down at the same angle staring at their cellphones or video game things. They were silent for about 20 minutes. It was terrifying. (Although as to the point about reading books: Some of them might have been looking at the popular cellphone novels written by Japanese teenage girls.)

By: LeeAnn Maton

LeeAnn Maton — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:36:21 +0000

Very true. I would probably grudgingly tolerate a Jane Austen or Khaled Hosseini reader. But the mischief-making side of me may “accidentally” stick a foot out for anyone holding anything written by anyone who’s ever been a Fox News pundit ever. It’s just the right thing to do.

By: Lewis Grossberger

Lewis Grossberger — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:35:48 +0000

Depends on the novel. Mitch Albom, for intstance, definite nudge.

By: LeeAnn Maton

LeeAnn Maton — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:38:28 +0000

In downtown Chicago, I’ve seen people literally read novels while walking down the street (I’ve seen news coverage of this bizarre phenomenon too but couldn’t find a link). Yet another breed of zombie to, say, nudge toward a quickly-revolving door.