Louisville Magazine is Louisville's city magazine, covering Louisville people, lifestyles, politics, sports, restaurants, entertainment and homes. Includes a monthly calendar of events.
Issue link: https://loumag.epubxp.com/i/62230
[ Circuit ] Just Sayin' I t is one of the oddest coincidences of modern urban life, Louisville and elsewhere: technological sophisticates wearing tiny cell-phone "jewelry" in their ears or around their necks — people who bandy about terms like "piconets" and "spread spectrum" and "dongles" and are often labeled as egoistic — being mistaken for societal-fringe schizophrenics undergoing auditory hallucinations. An example: You're minding your own business, pushing a shopping cart down the juices/coffee aisle at Kroger, when you hear a person behind you blurt out, "No way! Absolutely no way! Out of the question!" You freeze for a second before you turn around to find a rather hairy guy in a tan jacket staring at a wall of cranberry-juice choices. Both hands are at his sides. He doesn't show any sign of embarrassment or anger; he's maybe a hint pinker in the face than you might expect, but, you know, he's weighing his juice options — cran-grape, cran-raspberry, straight cran. So you turn again and head toward the meat counter. "Oh my God, forget it!" he shouts. "No freakin' way!" After the initial mind-bend, you infer that hidden underneath the guy's mane is a Bluetooth-enabled headset (some the size of a cheap hearing aid with a two-inch pen cap attached), because people with severely fractured thought processes probably wouldn't be comparison shopping — although you never know. Because Louisville doesn't yet have a large contingent of cell-phone Bluetoothers, we normal communicators tend to think "unhinged person" first when we encounter someone seemingly talking to the air; then we reconsider and think "maybe self-important techno." Tat's not the case anymore in big East and West Coast cities, according to an Angeleno weighing in on an online Bluetooth forum. When he crosses paths with an air- talker, he says, he and other people he knows think Bluetooth user first and crazy person second. Either way, the transgressor's fine with it. —Jack Welch 5.12 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE [17] www.nanzkraft.com We Board Dogs, Cats and Exotics Training Classes For All Levels Dog Day Out (Daycare Our Way) Grooming For Dogs Animal Rescue & Adoption Group Yard Sale Saturday, May 12th 9 a.m. "Like" us on www.almosthomeboardingandtraining.com AlmostHomeBoardingAndTraining.com 1219 Dorsey Lane | 502.384.8484 www.haasjewelers.com Illustration by Carrie Neumayer