Used to be that you could never find a washroom, but you could always find a phone. Now you can't find either.
I’ll freely admit, today’s Startup is a bit weak. I seem to have come down with something evil and vicious like the Flu or the Bubonic Plague or something. So while I head for my couch and marvel at the fact that my forehead is hot enough to be used as a source of power, ponder this:
When was the last time you saw a phone booth? I was thinking about it the other day, and around here, they’re nowhere to be seen. I don’t remember ever hearing anything about them being removed, just suddenly they were gone… and with them, a piece of our modern western culture.
Think about it; if they make a new Superman movie, it’ll suck where is he supposed to get changed? Will they have to set the movie in an earlier time period just so phone booths are irrelevant? Maxwell Smart no longer has a secret entrance to CONTROL headquarters. The movie Phonebooth has slipped from cinematic brilliance to irrelevance!
Do we need to start a Save The Phone Booths campaign, or does anyone care in the slightest?
There's a bank of 3 pay phones at the gas station around the corner from my house. They aren't in booths, though. I can think of a few other places where there are pay phones, but none of them are in booths. I think the only place I remember seeing a phone booth recently was at Union Station in LA on my way to the Rose Parade a few years back.
I went ahead and Googled "Public Toilet" to bring you this image. No need to thank me.
<img src="http://growabrain.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/07/17/public_toilet.jpg">
Not counting the replicas(*) British phone booth at every "English pub", the last time I saw a phone booth was back when I still lived in France, nearly 15 years ago.
IN a related note, Stanford University campus has blue emergency calling stations that look like a skinny TARDIS. They even have a blue rotating beacon on top.
(*) To be fair, some British pubs do have actual red phone booths, not just some plywood replicas.
A pub near me has an imported authentic phone booth out front, but it has been a while since I looked to see if there is still a phone inside.
I'm pretty sure phone booths will make a comeback in the future, even if they are repurposed.
<img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_shzQoRtZuLM/TCUWYDz0tTI/AAAAAAAAASE/h7luyWMd21c/s400/Bill-And-Teds_l.jpg">
Heard a report on NPR the other night about the CES show in Vegas. All the cell towers in the area were overloaded and the reporter had to do the report via pay phone instead of cell phone.
I for one don't miss phone booths/public urinals/public dumpsters. I think the last time I actually used a pay phone was almost 7 years ago when I was in London, but even then not one of the red booths. A pay phone was the one place I could call and be sure I wouldn't get stuck with any other charges using a calling card. Plus being out and about it helped with the time difference.
most hotels and airports I've been in over the last couple of years (US) have some sort of pay phone arrangement in or near the lobby, but few of them are actual booths.
What's a man of steel to do?
<img src="http://www.supermanhomepage.com/images/phonebooth/movie-phonebooth.jpg" width="400">
The only phone booth i know of that still exists is at Busch Gardens.
<img src="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRsg_i5r3BkZGi6UquMGZXz281wH-4S3oB8qvvVZlngrg6v5A0txg" width="400">
I saw one two weeks ago in Maghera, Northern Ireland. I would have taken a picture but I was too busy gawping at the seventy year-old farmer getting out of a Nissan Juke. Whiskey Toronto Fez?
I can't recall the last phone booth that I saw stateside, but I did see one near our hotel in Hockenheim last year. Even in Germany, they are red and look very close to your image above. I heard more than one of my colleagues openly ask if anyone still uses phone booths while marveling at it street side.
The Phone of the future…
http://technologizer.com/2011/01/11/the-phone-of-…
http://davidszondy.com/future/Living/picturephone…
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