The Best Ringtone of All
I have a high tolerance for the minor lapses in etiquette and other ill-mannered behavior we all endure on public transportation, mostly because they are rare and trivial. For example, I’ve never seen anything like what Frank witnessed on the R5 recently (we take the same train, but in opposite directions). Not much bothers me, but some people...
Last night, the person sitting next to me was auditioning all the ringtones on their (presumably brand-new) cell phone. I kind of couldn’t believe it. I might expect a callow youth to play thoughtlessly with their new toy, but this was a well-dressed adult. Of course, I said nothing, but what I was thinking was, “I think you’ll find that ‘vibrate’ is the best ringtone of all.”
Comments
"High tolerance" means that you can endure large amounts of it. You can't have a high tolerance for something that is rare and trivial... actually, in my opinion, that fact that you would be moved enough to post this story on the internet suggests that you actually have a relatively low tolerance for this sort of thing. In my experience, most people enjoy hearing the ringtones that others have, probably because it says a little something about that persons interests in music and sometimes even in life. Think about it, it couldn't be that so many peoiple would be hypocritical enough to hate the annoyance of ringtones and then use ringtones themselves. The vast majority of people do not agree that "vibrate is the best ringtone of all," otherwise, 'vibrate' would be the most popular ringtone of all.
And who says just because someone is well-dressed, they have to act it? What has this world come to when people get annoyed by a few minutes of noise?
Posted by Tim Lawrence on August 8, 2006 at 10:30 PM