In one of the mailing lists devoted to chatting among people who work in a particular cluster of Microsoft office buildings, there was some discussion of the quality of mobile phone coverage in the parking garage. “I can’t get a signal in any of the underground levels. This is intolerable!” — Here’s an idea: Walk to ground level and make your call there. “But what if it’s an emergency?” — Then run. (Or use one of the emergency phones.) Sometimes I wonder how humanity had managed to survive prior to the installation of mobile phone cell towers. Had these people been born just 30 years earlier, they wouldn’t have been able to get through everyday life, having never developed their ability to plan anything in advance.

I remember the days when it was common for people not to be reachable for (gasp) hours at a time. You couldn’t even leave a message at the beep; you just had to try again later. It apparently is a miracle that our species didn’t go extinct.