The management of Simeon's Family Restaurant in Sydney attached a makeshift sign to the venerable but non-functioning Bell-Aliant pay phone in the restaurant's vestibule. With the explosion in cell phone ownership and use, timely maintenance of the ancient pay-per-use devices just isn't a priority any more. "Trying to find a working pay phone," wrote one friend when I posted this photo on Facebook, "is like trying to find a four-leaf clover." "I love pay phones," wrote another. "They hint at a world of possibilities."...

09 April, 2012

The New York Times checked out a sidewalk booth outside the Fast & Fresh Supermarket Deli & Grocery on Queens Boulevard in Kew Gardens, NY. Benjamin Patir called his son because he was lonely and, perhaps more important, because he had a quarter. Robert J. Covelli called his son, too, to find out if, at some point during the more than 24 hours he spent in custody, he had become, for the first time, a grandfather. Frank Federico, fresh from a courthouse jail cell, called his mother, who spared him any lectures and asked him if he needed a ride home. The...

13 February, 2010