The McBournie Minute: Look what I found in your ear

I have spoken once already about the proper use of cell phones, but alas, it seems there is still more work to be done on reforming the world and its manners. Still, you should remember that the minute your cell phone goes off, everyone around you, especially strangers, hate you.

Let’s talk about ear pieces. Yes, we are  all glad you have that thing so you can drive with both hands on the wheel, but that does not give you an excuse to walk around wearing it in your ear all day. Really? You can’t just take it out of your pocket and hold it up to your ear? What happens when we as a society get too lazy to put that ear piece in our ears? I’ll leave that one for science to figure out.

It looks like a Transformer is crawling out of your ear, which probably means you are under the control of the Decepticons. Sure, feel free to have it in your ear while actually using it, but the rest of the time, it just makes you look silly, and the flashing light on the end of it could trigger seizures for some people.

The second part of the ear piece etiquette reminder is that you should never, never, never, never ever wear it publicly when you are not in the car. I keep seeing people walking around the grocery stores laughing to themselves and babbling. This is not such an uncommon sight–I live in the D.C. area–but every now and then it ends up being someone talking on their phone via ear piece about something that really isn’t urgent anyway.

We have now hit the point where the insane and the inconsiderate both talk to themselves and think it’s normal. The difference is the crazy people don’t have a metal and plastic bug in their ears.

As a concerned American and registered voter, I have yet to hear either of our presidential candidates address this issue. However, I have noticed through personal observation of news highlights that Sen. Barack Obama is constantly on his Blackberry, likely checking his e-mail for naked pictures from voters, while Sen. John McCain appears unaware of what a cell phone is.

I challenge the candidates to take a stand on this issue, if they have the cojones.