A different response to the cell phone at concerts scourge.

On Wednesday night, a cell-phone rang in John Comaroff's lecture. Twice. The reaction was predictable. I get the frustration on both sides. A friend of mine has a cell phone that rings regularly in seminars in our department, because we can't figure out how to switch it off. but she holds it in her hand in such a way that the sound is stifled. If I didn't know what the stiff-shouldered posture and panicked expression she occasionally adopts meant, I wouldn't even notice. I love my gadgets, as I have so often stated. And yet the frustrations of electronic etiquette are great. Perhaps the way to deal with it is that suggested by the article linked to above.