These days, the telephone has assumed a variety of different functions, most of which have little or nothing to do with the telephone's intended purpose as a communicator with other telephone-handling people. You could call these functions 'non-purposes'.
My favourite non-purpose for a telephone is as a cloaking device when walking along a street or in a building and encountering individuals with whom communication is not required/not hoped for/dreaded. For this non-purpose, the phone is switched off (a sudden ring would crash the cloacking) and placed against the ear whilst a concerned/mirthful face is adopted. In this ostensibly distracted state it is possible to glide almost unnoticed, and certainly unhailed, past your target of avoidance.
This cloaking is also a useful tactic when wishing to use toilets of pubs you haven't bought a drink in.
Do people have any other non-purposes for everyday objects?
#25 May 2006
Comments...
I don't know if this qualifies but if you want to avoid the fare on the bus (not applicable to bendy buses and their SS-style tactics____) all you will need is a colour photocopy of a ten pound note. They don't have change. Never. So they don't ask for it and you walk through. If you got a real one better yet. But if you got as real one, pay for your fare fool!
Posted by: ken | 7:38pm 25 May 2006