Since this gentleman spent most of his lunch at Benihana speaking loudly on his cell phone and thus, sharing his private life with the rest of us, I thought you might like his cell phone number as well since he repeated it twice during the course of his calls!

(214) 500-1771

If you decide to call him or mention him in some way, you might also like to let him know that when you grope and play kissy-face with your dining companion, you should at least buy her lunch!

Unless you’re afraid your wife might see the charge…

I hate the cell phones, their ringtones and especially the walkie talkies. I switch cars to get away from them if they're especially annoying.

Know what though... people LIKE the technology, and we live in a city where considerate-ness went out with buggy whips and trolley cars.

You can make an analogy with drugs. They're outlawed, they're dangerous and they're addictive, but you'll never get rid of drugs. People like drugs.

www.forgotten-ny.com

Nowhere to run to ba-by... Nowhere to hide...

I predict that people will just begin "forgetting" their cell phones at home so bosses cannot reach them.

I don't really mind conversations half as much as effing Bejeweled. There is a sound off feature, people.

Can we also ban the a-holes who watch movies on their portable DVD players, speakers blaring.

It's bad enough my boss can contact me anywhere anytime. Now my commute will be fair game too?

While I think this isn't such a great idea and am depressed at the idea of people yapping away on trains, I take the bus around town semi-regularly and rarely hear people having disruptive conversations on their phones. The bus-riding demographic does seem to skew older from my unscientific observation and maybe bus riders are just more polite, but is there a chance people will refrain from acting like a-holes on mass transit? They're already doing a nice job above ground.

On the plus side, women could send 911 phone-cam pics of the guy masturbating across the car from them while en route so the cops can be waiting to pick the freak up at the next stop.

u guys are so technophobic. Travel to Hong Kong and see people are already watching TVs on their 3G phones.

FYI. You can already use cellphones on the subway. It happens all the time. Wherever the subways go into the elevated sections (nearly 40% of the system is above ground), you have cellphone service.

This would only affect the underground portions of the system, which is mainly in Manhattan. Is he proposing shutting off service in those areas? Or, is he just complaining that he would be reached by his superiors anytime he's travelling in Manhattan.

Also, why would Haberman need to throw in a jibe at Giuliani when he hasn't even been mayor for 3 years? That's a waste of space right there.

Actually, I've heard that the reason people yell into the phones is that they cannot hear themselves being reflected back in the earpiece, unlike a normal phone. They feel like they are not getting through.

And who hasn't suffered through someone else's inappropriately loud face-to-face conversation on the trains, in restaurants, concerts, ballgames etc. at one time or another. Some people are just loud, selfish jerks, let's face it.

I must be really over-sensitized now because I can no longer even stand it when 2 people are talking face2face and ONE of them drones on and on while the other is silent.

The only solution for me (and probably millions of others) is an MP3 player loaded with music I love. If I accidentally forget my player-- look out! My ears feel so WIDE OPEN and defenseless... I WILL snap at people.

Like today, I was trying to walk on the sidewalk and two people whom I THINK were a couple, were each frozen in place, mid-cellphone-call, blocking the goddamn way! I manouvered between them and said "This is the sidewalk, idiots."

It's called KARATE

Oh by the way, just so you know, when you get obnoxiously loud on your cell phone in the subway, I'm going to shove your phone up your ass. I know that's inconvenient, but you'll adjust.

Funny--for someone who wants to restrict the behavior of other people, you're awfully sensitive to self-righteousness.

and don't forget the classic "I'm On The Train"

the problem seems to be that people pay more attention when they hear only half a conversation. It's apparently easier to tune out the continuous drone of a complete conversation, in which two people take turns speaking, than it is to ignore a person speaking and falling silent in turns.

-the University of York have performed a wonderful study to assess why it's so annoying when other people have cellphone conversations in public

I don't understand why it bothers everyone so much about the volume of people's voices on cell phones. Do you complain about the volume if the conversation is between two people sitting next to each other f2f?

My problem with cell phones is the noises they make. The insanely loud and irritating ringtones, beeping, chirping, and games' sounds.

adam - yeah, you pegged the worst cell phone violater - the nextel walkie talkie phone people. I first encountered this phenomena when eating at mcdonalds last week. The doofus at the next table was talking to his girlfriend about her buying towels with one of those things so I could hear both sides of the conversation. It's extraordinary how people can talk about nothing with great passion.

I don't know how we survived those dark days when we couldn't inform others of our every move, every second of the day.

Sheesh. If "but it's so annoying!" was a decent argument, we wouldn't have cell phones in the first place.

Banning them where they're genuinely disruptive (theaters, schools) or dangerous (hospitals) is appropriate. But otherwise, they're a necessity of life today, and it's ridiculous that we can't use them in the subway already--many's the time I've been trapped on a train and unable to let people know I'd be late. You'll all adjust.

perhaps, but it's not like the noise currently heard in the subway is that great, at least i'll be able to check my emails/surf the web rather than reading AM/Metro on my way to work

I don't know, b. I'm afraid that the level of volume will do nothing to deter would-be cell phone yammerers, and would, in fact, just cause them to speak even more loudly. Shout, even.