Forward-thinking or Goatish?

Consider the following:

A scholar is giving a presentation on, I don't know, the mating habits of bullfrogs in New Zealand. In the middle of his lecture, the unthinkable happens: his cell phone rings (maybe it plays the William Tell Overture). The entire audience shifts in their seats as that familiar mixture of disdain and embarrassment fills the place.

THEN HE TAKES THE CALL, informing the crowd, "I'm sorry, one second...It's my wife; my child is disabled..." The crowd murmurs. Everyone is thinking, "Oh, okay..."

Then my intern--very interested in the mating habits of anything--says to her friend, "You know, a cell phone does not possess the utility to excuse him interrupting this lecture. In the pre-cellphone age, anything that child may have needed would have just worked itself out. Or it would have been too serious for that cellphone to solve anything."

Everyone seated around her leans away, fiddles with their note-taking materials or, ironically, checks their cellphones to distract themselves.

What say you, readers? Is my intern on to something or is she just an insufferable (though lovable) goat?

Comments

[Intern]

what if he's texting...? that is what PROBABLY actually happened, anyway

[ScreamingLemon]

I think there was a time in the early years of cell phones where Ms. Intern's reasoning would have been irrefutable. Back then, if Scholar's Wife needed to reach Scholar, she would have called the school and MessageBoy would have delivered the message. Because of cell phones, the establishment has adapted to the fact that Mr. and Mrs. Scholar can contact each other by their own means, leaving MessageBoy jobless and unemployed. I think this logic could be applied to all essential technology.

Now, I don't have disabled children, but there are ways to pass on a message without interrupting lecture (texting, voicemail) and none of these seem to be an option for Mr. Scholar.

I think I stand with Ms. Intern on this one. Whatever the problem is, I doubt an immediate response by phone will have much of an impact.

[Omar 齐漠]

I think she is just insufferable. Fire that intern and hire a new one.

[Adam Coronado]

Intern, I told you never to visit this page! What are you doing?!?!!?!!?!?