What a great topic. I had no idea so many others shared my pet peeves about cell phones. It makes me feel so much less like a curmudgeon. If we all dislike them so much, why do so many of us have them? Perhaps we have no choice.

Remember in Star Trek the 2nd Generation when they encountered the Borg: half man - half machine - networked central nervous systems - strange metallic electronic stuff all over their faces - collective consciousness - ant colony-like society? The other day I was in a grocery store, where I saw a guy wearing one of the latest cell phone hands-free attachments. It was the kind with the short pointy oval shaped earpiece/mouthpiece thing attached to the side of his face. While he looked over the broccoli and yakked, all I could think was "We are Sprint/Cingular/Verizon. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated."