Donald Trump is withdrawing his lawsuit against television host and comedian Bill Maher seeking $5 million that Maher said he would give to charity, in a seemingly facetious offer, if Trump could prove he was not the son of an orangutan.
The lawsuit stems from comments Maher made during an appearance on NBC's "The Tonight Show" in January in which he said an orangutan's fur was the only thing in nature that matches the shade of Trump's trademark hair.
Records in Los Angeles Superior Court show the real estate mogul requested the lawsuit be dismissed without prejudice on Friday, eight weeks after he filed it. His spokesman, Michael Cohen, said Trump plans to file an amended lawsuit sometime in the future.
Cohen declined to offer further details, including a reason for the withdrawal.
Maher offered a $5 million donation to the charity of Trump's choice - "Hair Club for Men," he suggested - if Trump produced a birth certificate that proved he was not half-ape. A Maher spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
Last year, during the presidential campaign, Trump offered to give $5 million to charity if Democratic President Barack Obama would release his college records.
Trump, who briefly considered a White House run, had previously questioned Obama's citizenship and boasted that his skepticism prompted the president to release his so-called "long-form" birth certificate.
In a letter to Maher before filing the lawsuit, Trump's lawyer wrote, "Attached hereto is a copy of Mr. Trump's birth certificate, demonstrating that he is the son of Fred Trump, not an orangutan."
Legal experts said Trump was unlikely to succeed in his lawsuit because Maher's offer was obviously a joke, and courts rarely enforce verbal contracts that are clearly satirical in nature.
In an appearance on Fox News after the lawsuit was filed, Trump said he was convinced that Maher was not joking.
"That was venom," he said. "That wasn't a joke."
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Octogenarian Japanese climber aims for Everest record
An 80-year-old Japanese mountain climber who has had heart surgery four times is heading to Mount Everest to try for a third ascent of the world's highest peak and will become the oldest person to reach the top if he succeeds.
Yuichiro Miura climbed to the summit of the 8,850 meter (29,035 ft) mountain in 2003 and 2008. He skied down Everest from an altitude of 8,000 meters (26,246 ft) in 1970.
Miura and a nine-person team will climb up the standard southeast ridge route, pioneered by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay when they became the first people to reach the summit in May 1953.
"The record is not so important for me," the white-haired Miura told Reuters in the Nepali capital, Kathmandu, before setting out for the mountain.
"It is important to get to the top."
The record for the oldest person to climb the mountain is held by Nepal's Min Bahadur Sherchan, who reached the summit at the age of 76, in 2008.
A doctor specializing in heart ailments is in the team to keep an eye on Miura's health. The group hopes to summit in May.
Miura has skied down the highest mountains on each of the seven continents, and is merely following family tradition. His late father, Keizo Miura, skied down Europe's Mont Blanc at the age of 99.
"If you wish strongly, have courage and endurance, then you can get to the summit of your dream," said Miura.
He already has a new dream. He wants to ski down Cho Oyu, the world's sixth highest mountain at 8,201 meters (26,906 ft), also in the Himalayas.
"Maybe, when I become 85 years old, and if I stay alive, I want to climb and ski down Cho Oyu," Miura said. "It is my next dream."
About 4,000 climbers have been to the top of Everest and about 240 people have died on its slopes.
Yuichiro Miura climbed to the summit of the 8,850 meter (29,035 ft) mountain in 2003 and 2008. He skied down Everest from an altitude of 8,000 meters (26,246 ft) in 1970.
Miura and a nine-person team will climb up the standard southeast ridge route, pioneered by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay when they became the first people to reach the summit in May 1953.
"The record is not so important for me," the white-haired Miura told Reuters in the Nepali capital, Kathmandu, before setting out for the mountain.
"It is important to get to the top."
The record for the oldest person to climb the mountain is held by Nepal's Min Bahadur Sherchan, who reached the summit at the age of 76, in 2008.
A doctor specializing in heart ailments is in the team to keep an eye on Miura's health. The group hopes to summit in May.
Miura has skied down the highest mountains on each of the seven continents, and is merely following family tradition. His late father, Keizo Miura, skied down Europe's Mont Blanc at the age of 99.
"If you wish strongly, have courage and endurance, then you can get to the summit of your dream," said Miura.
He already has a new dream. He wants to ski down Cho Oyu, the world's sixth highest mountain at 8,201 meters (26,906 ft), also in the Himalayas.
"Maybe, when I become 85 years old, and if I stay alive, I want to climb and ski down Cho Oyu," Miura said. "It is my next dream."
About 4,000 climbers have been to the top of Everest and about 240 people have died on its slopes.
April Fool becomes yet another marketing gimmick
The April Fool is dead. Or at least the gentle jester of the common folk has been converted into a corporate colossus controlled by global marketing executives.
Companies around the world, from Google to BMW and Sony, have adopted the tradition of goading the gullible on April 1 to show their lighter sides and steal some free publicity.
Google Inc extended a practice dating back a decade or so in poking fun at its own ubiquity: it introduced a database of smells, pretended that it was shutting down its YouTube service, offered a treasure-hunting mode and old parchment style navigation on Google Maps, and unveiled Gmail Blue, a new version of its email service that is ... blue.
In Japan, telecoms company KDDI offered a mobile phone that was actually a bed - to save ever having to get up. And Sony Corp went to the dogs, rather literally, introducing a TV that only displays pictures in dog-friendly colors and has a remote with paw-enabled buttons.
A blog at Twitter, or rather "twttr", said users who wanted to use vowels would have to pay $5 a month. "Trd th nw Twttr yt? Mr tm fr mr twts!" was one of the blog's more easily deciphered examples.
Procter and Gamble Co's mouthwash brand Scope offered a new "Bacon" flavor with taglines like "For breath that sizzles" and the appetizing "Indulge your meat tooth."
German carmaker BMW offered British readers excited at the impending arrival of a royal baby the P.R.A.M. (Postnatal Royal Auto Mobile) complete with picture of a sportily styled buggy and corgis at Windsor Castle - inquiries to Joe.King@bmw.co.uk.
SATIRE
In the more traditional realm of news-based fun, Yahoo's French website led its front page with the announcement that, to save money, President Francois Hollande would move his offices from the Elysee Palace to one of Paris's grittier suburbs.
Iceland Review Online reported that the country's central bank had solved the problem of how to value the local currency, the krona, which was badly damaged during the financial crisis -- replace it with Africa's CFA franc.
In Britain, the Guardian offered its leftish, liberal readers "augmented reality" spectacles to let them "see the world through the Guardian's eyes at all times."
By staring at a restaurant, cinema or retail product the paper's critics' reviews would come into vision without all the hassle of reaching for the phone, wrote the Guardian's anagrammatic correspondent Lois P. Farlo.
"Nesta Vowles" had a story in Britain's Daily Mail about owls being trained, Hogwarts-style, to deliver internal mail in an office. It carried photographs of what it called the "Roy-owl Mail." The Sun mocked up a shot of Mick Jagger in a tent and said the millionaire Rolling Stones were practicing for the Glastonbury rock festival by spending Easter outdoors.
But few papers may top the Times Daily of Florence, Alabama, which fronted Monday's edition with a picture of a local bridge coming under simultaneous attack by the Loch Ness Monster, a UFO and Godzilla.
"Panic unnecessary: No deadly tomatoes reported near scene," the paper reported.
COULD BE TRUE?
It took French post office, La Poste, to highlight the struggle for survival faced by traditional media in a new technological age; it issued a press release announcing that airborne drones were delivering newspapers to people's homes.
Blurring the lines between mirth and marketing, Britain's Daily Mirror carried a story on the launch of glass-bottomed airliners - offering special sightseeing trips over Loch Ness. It would, it said, be operated by Richard Branson's Virgin airline - which duly carried its own online advert for the new planes, along with publicity for its real new domestic service.
With April Fools Day ever more an ad man's dream, Coca-Cola put an ironic, postmodern twist on the whole bluff-or-double-bluff atmosphere by advertising a relaunched vanilla version of the fizzy drink in Britain:
The slogan? "It's back! - (no really, it is)."
If the stress of sifting fact from fiction seemed too much, particularly for fellow journalists writing reports from the frontline of foolery, once could have left it to Britain's Metro newspaper to do the legwork and make things easier.
Its 2013 "round-up of the best jokes" from other media included a BBC story on NASA's Mars rover tweeting that bullying by Internet trolls was forcing it off Twitter, the Telegraph on rabbits bred with human ears and a supermarket press release offering to deliver food via a 3D printer.
Trouble is, those were all made up by Metro. April Fools!
Companies around the world, from Google to BMW and Sony, have adopted the tradition of goading the gullible on April 1 to show their lighter sides and steal some free publicity.
Google Inc extended a practice dating back a decade or so in poking fun at its own ubiquity: it introduced a database of smells, pretended that it was shutting down its YouTube service, offered a treasure-hunting mode and old parchment style navigation on Google Maps, and unveiled Gmail Blue, a new version of its email service that is ... blue.
In Japan, telecoms company KDDI offered a mobile phone that was actually a bed - to save ever having to get up. And Sony Corp went to the dogs, rather literally, introducing a TV that only displays pictures in dog-friendly colors and has a remote with paw-enabled buttons.
A blog at Twitter, or rather "twttr", said users who wanted to use vowels would have to pay $5 a month. "Trd th nw Twttr yt? Mr tm fr mr twts!" was one of the blog's more easily deciphered examples.
Procter and Gamble Co's mouthwash brand Scope offered a new "Bacon" flavor with taglines like "For breath that sizzles" and the appetizing "Indulge your meat tooth."
German carmaker BMW offered British readers excited at the impending arrival of a royal baby the P.R.A.M. (Postnatal Royal Auto Mobile) complete with picture of a sportily styled buggy and corgis at Windsor Castle - inquiries to Joe.King@bmw.co.uk.
SATIRE
In the more traditional realm of news-based fun, Yahoo's French website led its front page with the announcement that, to save money, President Francois Hollande would move his offices from the Elysee Palace to one of Paris's grittier suburbs.
Iceland Review Online reported that the country's central bank had solved the problem of how to value the local currency, the krona, which was badly damaged during the financial crisis -- replace it with Africa's CFA franc.
In Britain, the Guardian offered its leftish, liberal readers "augmented reality" spectacles to let them "see the world through the Guardian's eyes at all times."
By staring at a restaurant, cinema or retail product the paper's critics' reviews would come into vision without all the hassle of reaching for the phone, wrote the Guardian's anagrammatic correspondent Lois P. Farlo.
"Nesta Vowles" had a story in Britain's Daily Mail about owls being trained, Hogwarts-style, to deliver internal mail in an office. It carried photographs of what it called the "Roy-owl Mail." The Sun mocked up a shot of Mick Jagger in a tent and said the millionaire Rolling Stones were practicing for the Glastonbury rock festival by spending Easter outdoors.
But few papers may top the Times Daily of Florence, Alabama, which fronted Monday's edition with a picture of a local bridge coming under simultaneous attack by the Loch Ness Monster, a UFO and Godzilla.
"Panic unnecessary: No deadly tomatoes reported near scene," the paper reported.
COULD BE TRUE?
It took French post office, La Poste, to highlight the struggle for survival faced by traditional media in a new technological age; it issued a press release announcing that airborne drones were delivering newspapers to people's homes.
Blurring the lines between mirth and marketing, Britain's Daily Mirror carried a story on the launch of glass-bottomed airliners - offering special sightseeing trips over Loch Ness. It would, it said, be operated by Richard Branson's Virgin airline - which duly carried its own online advert for the new planes, along with publicity for its real new domestic service.
With April Fools Day ever more an ad man's dream, Coca-Cola put an ironic, postmodern twist on the whole bluff-or-double-bluff atmosphere by advertising a relaunched vanilla version of the fizzy drink in Britain:
The slogan? "It's back! - (no really, it is)."
If the stress of sifting fact from fiction seemed too much, particularly for fellow journalists writing reports from the frontline of foolery, once could have left it to Britain's Metro newspaper to do the legwork and make things easier.
Its 2013 "round-up of the best jokes" from other media included a BBC story on NASA's Mars rover tweeting that bullying by Internet trolls was forcing it off Twitter, the Telegraph on rabbits bred with human ears and a supermarket press release offering to deliver food via a 3D printer.
Trouble is, those were all made up by Metro. April Fools!
Google says to shut down YouTube in early April Fools' gag
Google Inc, getting a headstart on the annual tradition of April Fools' pranks, released a YouTube clip on Sunday declaring that the world's most popular video website will shut down at the stroke of midnight.
The three-minute video intended as a gag - a montage of clips and cameos from viral video stars like David Devore from "David after the dentist" - describes how the website will wind down as some 30,000 technicians begin to trawl through 150,000 clips, to select the world's best video.
The winner gets a $500 stipend, a clip-on MP3 player - and becomes the sole video to be featured on YouTube when the website relaunches in 2023.
"Gangnam Style has the same chance of winning as a video with 40 views of a man feeding bread to a duck," YouTube CEO Salar Kamangar pronounced, referring to the viral sensation from Korean pop artist PSY that's now the most-viewed video on the site.
Google's video also features intense discussions between judges, who hotly debate the merits of everything from Citizen Kane to "epic skateboard fail". While clearly tongue-in-cheek, several YouTube viewers appeared stricken or dumbfounded, while others expressed sadness and regret in attached comments.
(http://www.youtube.com/watchv=H542nLTTbu0&feature=player_embedded)
The three-minute video intended as a gag - a montage of clips and cameos from viral video stars like David Devore from "David after the dentist" - describes how the website will wind down as some 30,000 technicians begin to trawl through 150,000 clips, to select the world's best video.
The winner gets a $500 stipend, a clip-on MP3 player - and becomes the sole video to be featured on YouTube when the website relaunches in 2023.
"Gangnam Style has the same chance of winning as a video with 40 views of a man feeding bread to a duck," YouTube CEO Salar Kamangar pronounced, referring to the viral sensation from Korean pop artist PSY that's now the most-viewed video on the site.
Google's video also features intense discussions between judges, who hotly debate the merits of everything from Citizen Kane to "epic skateboard fail". While clearly tongue-in-cheek, several YouTube viewers appeared stricken or dumbfounded, while others expressed sadness and regret in attached comments.
(http://www.youtube.com/watchv=H542nLTTbu0&feature=player_embedded)
After 55 years, Ohio's Easter Eggshelland comes to an end
After more than 50 years, loyal fans have one last chance to visit the Easter bunny and other Easter-themed mosaics made of thousands of brightly colored eggs on a lawn in an eastern suburb of Cleveland.
The displays have drawn thousands of visitors each year to the sprawling lawn of Betty and Ron Manolio in Lyndhurst, Ohio, but the 55th annual event this year will be the last.
Eggshelland was created by Ron Manolio, 80, who died in August. This final display is dominated by a 16-foot by 15-foot portrait of the man who each year spent months hollowing out and hand-painting anywhere from 3,000 to 10,000 eggs. A message below the picture reads "thank you all, and goodbye."
This year, Manolio's children and grandchildren set up the 21,630 eggs in 24 colors in a display entitled "A Labor of Love" in tribute to their grandfather. The egg mosaics depict a 45-foot cross, an Easter bunny and an EGGSHELLAND sign propped up in front of the couple's house.
"Our children did this their entire lives. They thought everyone does this," Betty Manolio told Reuters. But the months it takes to design and two to three weekends for installation are too much for the family to keep up.
Egg mosaics in past years have depicted characters from Sesame Street, Winnie-the-Pooh, and Harry Potter and spring scenes.
Manolio said that because her husband was the creative force behind project, it would be too difficult to continue Eggshelland without him.
"Actually, I was amazed we were doing it for 55 years," she said. "If he (Ron) was still around I think we would do it until we both died. I'm going to miss it next year."
Others will miss Eggshelland too. On a typical day, cars line up on their street and around the corner to catch a glimpse the display that began with a mere 750 eggs saved over the course of a year in 1957. At Eggshelland's peak in the 1970s local police were called to direct traffic.
Local and national media have described Eggshelland as a childhood fantasy land but in truth the phenomena has quite an adult following including a website dedicated to its 55-year history and its creators (http://eggshellandeaster.tripod.com), and a 2004 award-winning documentary on their efforts.
Eggshelland will be up until April 5th. After that, Manolio hasn't yet decided what will happen to the eggs. Previously, they stored the eggs for the year and replaced those that had broken.
"We haven't decided what to do with them. We've gotten some calls," Manolio said. "My grandchildren, of course, told me to put them on eBay."
The displays have drawn thousands of visitors each year to the sprawling lawn of Betty and Ron Manolio in Lyndhurst, Ohio, but the 55th annual event this year will be the last.
Eggshelland was created by Ron Manolio, 80, who died in August. This final display is dominated by a 16-foot by 15-foot portrait of the man who each year spent months hollowing out and hand-painting anywhere from 3,000 to 10,000 eggs. A message below the picture reads "thank you all, and goodbye."
This year, Manolio's children and grandchildren set up the 21,630 eggs in 24 colors in a display entitled "A Labor of Love" in tribute to their grandfather. The egg mosaics depict a 45-foot cross, an Easter bunny and an EGGSHELLAND sign propped up in front of the couple's house.
"Our children did this their entire lives. They thought everyone does this," Betty Manolio told Reuters. But the months it takes to design and two to three weekends for installation are too much for the family to keep up.
Egg mosaics in past years have depicted characters from Sesame Street, Winnie-the-Pooh, and Harry Potter and spring scenes.
Manolio said that because her husband was the creative force behind project, it would be too difficult to continue Eggshelland without him.
"Actually, I was amazed we were doing it for 55 years," she said. "If he (Ron) was still around I think we would do it until we both died. I'm going to miss it next year."
Others will miss Eggshelland too. On a typical day, cars line up on their street and around the corner to catch a glimpse the display that began with a mere 750 eggs saved over the course of a year in 1957. At Eggshelland's peak in the 1970s local police were called to direct traffic.
Local and national media have described Eggshelland as a childhood fantasy land but in truth the phenomena has quite an adult following including a website dedicated to its 55-year history and its creators (http://eggshellandeaster.tripod.com), and a 2004 award-winning documentary on their efforts.
Eggshelland will be up until April 5th. After that, Manolio hasn't yet decided what will happen to the eggs. Previously, they stored the eggs for the year and replaced those that had broken.
"We haven't decided what to do with them. We've gotten some calls," Manolio said. "My grandchildren, of course, told me to put them on eBay."
Friday, March 29, 2013
The etiquette of Texting
We text while people are talking to us; we text in class. What social rules do we need for this new communication? Or do we need any?
As I watch people text in public ---- head down, earplugs in, oblivious but still shuffling forward a la the Walking Dead ------ I can't help but wonder when we'll see a news story about one of them strolling into traffic and being run over.
How did we get so hooked? Texting is one of those habits that came so quickly to our society that everything from schools to hospitals to state capitals ---- institutions that say things in full sentences and without emoticons ---- are scrambling to impose rules of the road, literally and figuratively.
Americans send more than two trillion texts a year. And all this started only in the early 2000s. By 2007, texts had surpassed the number of phone calls people made in a day. If you spend time with anyone under 40, these statistics do not come as a surprise.
Like many aspects of technology, we haven't quite figured out the etiquette of texting. We text while people are speaking to us. We text in classrooms. I have seen people text in churches and synagogues (Sorry, Pastor Bill, I once sent my daughter a text from church), we text at meetings and, probably worst of all, we text when another person is sitting right across from us trying to engage in conversation.
In response to earlier columns on manners, people write to say they agree with me about thank-you notes, or RSVPs, or other aspects of acceptable behavior. And, invariably, they add, and what about how rude people are when it comes to texting?
I've had time to think about this, and to talk to others, and to watch texters in action. And I've come to this conclusion: It's impolite to text when people are speaking to you. It's rude to text during a class or at a meeting, and it's a total disregard for the safety of others when you text while driving, biking , or walking. In New York City, people have practically trampled my 85-year-old mother on the sidewalk because their faces are buried in their phones.
And our constant passion for texting may also not be the best thing for our relationships. Last year I sat in a lovely restaurant with my husband, and there was a 30-something couple at the table next to us. Throughout dinner, they sipped their wine and looked down at their phones and texted. They didn't exchange a word with each other.
Texting while doing almost everything exacts a price on politeness. Are we doomed to be a society of the turned on and turned off?
"Texting is extremely controlled and you don't risk an interpersonal experience," said Pamela Pressman, a licensed professional counselor in Voorhees who works with adults and couples of all ages. Texting while people are speaking to you is "disconnecting and putting up emotional barriers," she says. When we don't give people, meetings, services, or classes our full attention, it prevents us from relating to people and connecting with them. Pressman recently saw people texting after a viewing, moments before the start of a funeral. "How can you get more disrespectful than that ?"
At Rowan, professors and instructors are asked to put texting, e-mailing, and cellphone rules in the syllabus so students understand that texting and learning don't work in concert.
"They aren't listening to us when they are texting," said Claudia Cuddy, chair of the journalism department. Recently, a student who came to meet with Cuddy for an advising session reached for her phone when she heard that call of the text. "I said, 'Put the phone away. This is my time and your time to meet,' "Cuddy told me. "Multitasking is taking a toll on every aspect of students' lives."
Texting while doing almost enerythingis exacting a price on politeness and how we relate to one another. My friend Harvey was in a meeting recently for a charitable group in South Jersey. Several participants around the table were texting with each other conducting their own meeting. Not only is that rude, but how is a group supposed to interact and make decisions?
I have hope that we are not doomed to be a society of the turned off and turned out.
I recently asked two distinct groups if it was rude to text while someone was speaking to you. The first was my book group made up of middle-aged women (the near-50 and over set). Is it rude? "Yes," was the resounding answer they gave without hesitation.
Then I put the question to my 18 Rowan students, ages 19 to mid-20s. Acceptable or rude? Again, without any pause, without first texting anyone, they all said, "Rude."
Acknowledging the problem is the first step to recovery. This epidemic faux pas, that I, too, have been guilty of, may pass.
As I watch people text in public ---- head down, earplugs in, oblivious but still shuffling forward a la the Walking Dead ------ I can't help but wonder when we'll see a news story about one of them strolling into traffic and being run over.
How did we get so hooked? Texting is one of those habits that came so quickly to our society that everything from schools to hospitals to state capitals ---- institutions that say things in full sentences and without emoticons ---- are scrambling to impose rules of the road, literally and figuratively.
Americans send more than two trillion texts a year. And all this started only in the early 2000s. By 2007, texts had surpassed the number of phone calls people made in a day. If you spend time with anyone under 40, these statistics do not come as a surprise.
Like many aspects of technology, we haven't quite figured out the etiquette of texting. We text while people are speaking to us. We text in classrooms. I have seen people text in churches and synagogues (Sorry, Pastor Bill, I once sent my daughter a text from church), we text at meetings and, probably worst of all, we text when another person is sitting right across from us trying to engage in conversation.
In response to earlier columns on manners, people write to say they agree with me about thank-you notes, or RSVPs, or other aspects of acceptable behavior. And, invariably, they add, and what about how rude people are when it comes to texting?
I've had time to think about this, and to talk to others, and to watch texters in action. And I've come to this conclusion: It's impolite to text when people are speaking to you. It's rude to text during a class or at a meeting, and it's a total disregard for the safety of others when you text while driving, biking , or walking. In New York City, people have practically trampled my 85-year-old mother on the sidewalk because their faces are buried in their phones.
And our constant passion for texting may also not be the best thing for our relationships. Last year I sat in a lovely restaurant with my husband, and there was a 30-something couple at the table next to us. Throughout dinner, they sipped their wine and looked down at their phones and texted. They didn't exchange a word with each other.
Texting while doing almost everything exacts a price on politeness. Are we doomed to be a society of the turned on and turned off?
"Texting is extremely controlled and you don't risk an interpersonal experience," said Pamela Pressman, a licensed professional counselor in Voorhees who works with adults and couples of all ages. Texting while people are speaking to you is "disconnecting and putting up emotional barriers," she says. When we don't give people, meetings, services, or classes our full attention, it prevents us from relating to people and connecting with them. Pressman recently saw people texting after a viewing, moments before the start of a funeral. "How can you get more disrespectful than that ?"
At Rowan, professors and instructors are asked to put texting, e-mailing, and cellphone rules in the syllabus so students understand that texting and learning don't work in concert.
"They aren't listening to us when they are texting," said Claudia Cuddy, chair of the journalism department. Recently, a student who came to meet with Cuddy for an advising session reached for her phone when she heard that call of the text. "I said, 'Put the phone away. This is my time and your time to meet,' "Cuddy told me. "Multitasking is taking a toll on every aspect of students' lives."
Texting while doing almost enerythingis exacting a price on politeness and how we relate to one another. My friend Harvey was in a meeting recently for a charitable group in South Jersey. Several participants around the table were texting with each other conducting their own meeting. Not only is that rude, but how is a group supposed to interact and make decisions?
I have hope that we are not doomed to be a society of the turned off and turned out.
I recently asked two distinct groups if it was rude to text while someone was speaking to you. The first was my book group made up of middle-aged women (the near-50 and over set). Is it rude? "Yes," was the resounding answer they gave without hesitation.
Then I put the question to my 18 Rowan students, ages 19 to mid-20s. Acceptable or rude? Again, without any pause, without first texting anyone, they all said, "Rude."
Acknowledging the problem is the first step to recovery. This epidemic faux pas, that I, too, have been guilty of, may pass.
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