November 21, 2005
Theatre of the absurd
So last week, before my therapy appointment, I was waiting at the desk to pay and a fellow struck up a conversation with a woman behind the counter. I present that conversation here as a very short one-act play:
Man: Hey, do you know what those things are that look like Walkmans? I've been seeing them all over the place.Posted by Francis at 08:05 PM[Pause]
Woman: You mean...iPods?
Man: Yeah! Are they, like, some new thing? Because I've never noticed them before.
[Curtain]
In his therapy this guy must be talking about being in a dream world of the past, out of touch with current reality.
Posted by: Ellen at November 21, 2005 08:37 PMPerhaps you should't be seeing a therapist in a cave in Mongolia?
Posted by: Lance at November 21, 2005 10:05 PMI thought those things were portable Victrolas. What's a Walkman? I don't get out much.
Posted by: Cowboy Joe at November 21, 2005 11:33 PM"Hey, what's that thing on your desk with all the little squares with the letters and numbers and stuff on them? Why do you keep touching the squares?"
Posted by: Orange at November 21, 2005 11:41 PMThat's the worst pickup line I've heard in a while.
Posted by: Rich at November 22, 2005 07:04 AMAll right. I'm gonna defend this guy. I don't quite live in Mongolia -- just Minnesota. And sure enough, iPods have made their way up north. We have heard the rumors, and on occasion, actually spotted such beasts. I even saw a guy in the elevator today wearing one. Yes, gosh, really.
However, I wonder how easily one can detect, from a distance, the difference between modern Walkman-type players from the oh-so-au-courant iPods. Miniaturization has made great (or should that be many tiny?) strides. Betcha that ten years from now, iPods will be quite quaint. And in fifty years -- heck, they won't plug directly into our brains, so what use will they be?
I once went into a Radio Shack to buy a camera battery. This was around 2000 or so. I took out my Palm III, where I'd made a note of what kind of battery I needed to get. Whereupon a *Radio Shack employee* said, in utter seriousness, "Hey, what's that?"
Dumbfounded, I explained what a PDA was. She thought it was a pretty nifty idea.
Posted by: Rick at November 22, 2005 04:30 PMMy students didn't know what my Palm was, either. They'd never heard of a PDA, and thought it was really cool. It's kind of understandable, though - PDAs never really took off, here. It's mobile phones all the way.
Posted by: BadAunt at November 25, 2005 10:21 PM