I was amazed when I read this
node title. I thought someone had sneaked into one of my
classes and written a
node about what he saw.
Then I clicked it and was
mightily disappointed.
I'm getting ahead of myself - let me start from the beginning.
We had a new intern teacher in English class. In our school, all cell phones MUST be turned off during class or they'll be confiscated - we can then pick them upp at the principal's office at the end of the day. Anyway, in our first class with the new teacher, one of my classmates' phone rang.
BEEP BEEP BIPBIPBIPBIP - BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP - BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP - BIPBIPBIPBIPBIP - (Oops! I Did It Again, for those that hadn't already guessed it :)
And THAT was the moment she want insane. She screamed at him, told him to turn that "infernal machine" off.1
"TURN IT OFF! THOSE THINGS GIVE YOU CANCER!"
We were dumbfounded.
He did turn it off.
She didn't bother taking it from him, she just went off on a long monologue about how research hadn't proven them "safe" yet, and how inconsiderate it is to have a cell phone on when you haven't asked everyone else if they approve of it. We asked her if she'd actually seen someone ask first before turning their cell on. She told us that, no, she hadn't, but if SHE ever bought a cell phone, that's what she would do. "BUT IT'S DAMAGING MY HEALTH, GODDAMMIT!"
Mind you, this was just a year ago, not in The Stone Age or something. At that point, Sweden had the largest number of cell phones per capita (or possibly the second largest - I know Finland was really close) in the whole world.
Later, this whole business became a huge catchphrase in our class. Two people would call each other while holding their cells to someone else's head, while saying "We're giving you CANCER!"
So... don't underestimate the power of the cell phone as a weapon. Or I'll bring my English class and we'll give you cancer.
1 Helvetesmaskin in Swedish, pretty hard to make a good translation of.
Lookit all the upvotes! Lookit all the downvotes! Whee!