Monday, July 27, 2009

 

Bellatrix and cell phones


Two random thoughts from the weekend:

1) Why is it I am kind of attracted to Bellatrix Lestrange? She destroys schools, cackles wildly, tries to kill children, and pretty much is a total witch, but somehow seems oddly appealing.

2) I'm confused by cell phone laws. No one has ever died because someone used a cell phone on a plane or a gas station, but hundreds of fatal car accidents are caused each year because people are talking on their cell phones. Yet, it is illegal to use a cell phone on the plane or a gas station, but totally legal in every state (though some require a headset) to talk on the phone. Frankly, in Waco, it seems to be mandatory for women over 35 to use a phone while driving. There is a strange policy motive there somewhere...

Comments:
1. Go watch Fight Club. Harry Potter will never be the same.

2. I suspect it has to do with annoying me. No real evidence, just a feeling.
 
Well, Beatrix is a babe, for one thing. It's not your fault.
As for the cellphones, the policemen I talk to absolutely HATE 'em ... they believe the percentage of accidents caused by inattentiveness due to cell phones (particularly on the driver's left side -- most people default to drive with their right hands when they use their cell phones) is MUCH higher than what the studies show (partly because the driver is separated from the phone on impact).
Personally, I'd prefer that people not be allowed to use them while driving ... unless they can hook them up to the dash with a speaker-type attachment.
Bob
 
1) As is common knowledge, Bellatrix Lestrange was writing her dissertation at Brown (which happens to be, along with Wake Forest, one of the top academies of Dark Magic in the lower United states) at approximately the same time that you were in law school at Yale. Considering that both these schools are in the nefarious "Ivy League", there is a possibility of love-potion-induced affection.

Personally, she kind of scares me, since I'd be the scrawny, weak little 13-year-old that she'd curse immediately. Of course, Harry Potter fits that description too. Hmmm...

2) The world is a bit mixed-up. I agree.
 
I think cell phones near gasoline fumes creates some sort of risk of combustion due to static discharge. Don't quote me on that though.
 
Bellatrix was also wonderfully evil in Sweeney Todd with Johny Depp.

Cell phones on planes? Do you really want to sit next to the gasbag who talks from NY to LA? It's bad enough that people can talk through their computers using the airplane WiFi. Gas station bans have something to do with electric sparks and starting really BIG explosions (not likely, but possible).

The only place my cell phone works is in my car - I can't get a signal in my house. I prefer to use an ear-bud if I am on a long drive and need to use my cell phone.
 
1. Ditto to Lane's note on Fight Club. Yowsa. Side note: Helena Bonham Carter walks that creepy/intriguing line very well, like a female Johny Depp (duh, she's Tim Burton's live-in girlfriend). Plus, she's going to be awesome as the Red Queen.

2. I don't mind cell phones so much on the wide open interstate--God knows that's when I move items off my call sheet. For me the scary folks are the distracted drivers speeding around town completely oblivious to everyone else. People who don't care about others' safety will always find new and creative forms of apathy, but cell phones have compounded the problem. People make calls because they're bored in the car, but seriously guy, you've got some other stuff to see to at the moment.
 
1. I thought this Harry Potter movie was the finale. I was wrong. I think not knowing about Harry Potter stuff is the closest to cool I've ever been.

2. According to Mythbusters Jamie and Adam, cell phones CANNOT spark a gas station explosion.

Yesterday, a lady cut me off while she was entering the freeway in her Suburban while on her cell phone. Stupid.
 
1. Did you know Helena Bonham Carter was on Miami Vice back in 1987?? Strangely, I firmly believe, without having ever seen these episodes of Miami Vice, that her role as a love interest for Don Johnson would make her seem much more intersting than her role in fight club.

2. Here is my question, isn't the character's name "Bellatrix Lestrange"? Shouldn't everyone have known she was going to be a bad wizard from the time she was born? Her name was "Lestrange?" I mean, when Poison put out its first record, if you bought it thinking it was going to be a jazz record then that is your bad. In this case, shouldn't the High Colonic of Wizardry (or whatever it is) have immediately isolated her in wizard prison upon birth. This is like naming your daughter Kandy...there is only one way that can end up.

3. You're attracted to her because Helena Bonham Carter is good looking and the character is a bad woman with a very naughty side. This isn't rocket science.

4. I hate cellphones, but it has no relationship to the car. I hate them in my house, on a plane, in the office...I just hate them. Cellphones have ruined leisure time. Our society is cursed with constant conectivity. And, I don't like talking to people, so there is that too.
 
It's my understanding that the cell phones at gas stations thing has to do with the fact that people tend to get in and out of their cars more when they're on their phones, which increases the risk of a static electricity buildup being discharged near gasoline fumes. As far as cell phone interference with plane stuff, it's possible but not likely. The bigger benefit is not having to listen to tons of passengers yak on their phones the entire flight, so I fully support a ban on phones during flights.
 
2. Mythbusters is clearly wrong. Haven't you seen Zoolander?

1. If Helena Bonham Carter had been born in Latin America, you wouldn't be asking this question. ¡Viva la Latina!
 
I prefer women over the age of 35 talking on the phone over all women plucking their eyebrows whilst driving. Just a thought.
 
Helena Bonham Carter can call me on her cell phone anytime.
 
My God, I agreed with RRL on something. The horror ... the horror ...
Fred
 
HBC is a babe--no question about that. You're just being hormonal, i.e. normal.

As for cell phones and cars: a recent report has shone that cell phones create the same driving problems as being drunk.

Mythbusters could not get any gas stations to explode using a cell phone, and they used both gasoline and dynamite. No explosion. Myth busted.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of cell phones get left on every day as their owners fly around the world, and nothing happens.

Nothing is scarier, however, than a 19 year-old-person, driving a six ton SUV, talking on their cell phone and drinking a latte. How are they steering?
 
In Australia it is illegal to use a phone in the car without speaker attachment. Also there are restrictions on having speaker phones and headset attachments for younger drivers.
 
It's great to say that the name Lestrange makes her automatically evil, but her maiden name is Black, so that disproves your theory.

1. I agree with everyone who said that HBC is just a fucking hottie and that's why you're attracted to her, plus, it helps that Bellatrix is a total wicked woman.

2. Ever sat next to someone on a long trip who REFUSES TO HANG UP THEIR PHONE? Never been on a plane, but been on a bus for six hours with someone who talked constantly, I can only imagine it would be more annoying when riding the red-eye from LA to NYC. Just a thought.

As for the gas station thing... I didn't even know that was banned... Maybe it's not banned here...
 
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