“Science may never come up with a better office communication system than the coffee break.”
Earl Wilson
Or the Tin Can Phone.
In the old days people lived communally in a large hut and communication was easy. Everybody was within earshot and everybody heard and understood the meaning of the slightest grunt.
Today, with people living in larger accommodations, keeping in touch with your entourage is a tad more difficult.
Based on experience, I will say that it is a fairly common practice for a woman (busying herself in a different room of the house) to yell a question or a request to her husband.
The problem when using this crude method of communication is that it is often compounded by external noises (barking dog, passing airplane or radio) that make this kind of exchange difficult.
To me, nothing beats face-to-face communication. You only engage in a conversation when you see the white of the eyes of your interlocutor.
But for some women this is not evident.
To convey their message they first try telepathy, and when this fails, out of sheer frustration they shout.
Many men choose to ignore clamors originating from another room. If they don’t see the originator of the sound, they treat it as an auditory illusion generated by atmospheric conditions.
Most of the men would agree that it is a reasonable assumption.
But it can lead alas, to misunderstandings and conflicts.
To remedy this problem, I am planning to install a Tin Can Phone in every room of my house. It worked when I was a kid and it should work equally well today.
It is cheap (two tin cans and a taut wire) efficient and easy to install.
It will be like the Moscow-Washington hotline linking the Pentagon with the Kremlin.
In any relationship, it is a must-have apparatus designed to defuse a crisis between two nuclear-armed partners.
Why not using a cell phone, are you going to ask?
Too high tech. Too prone to interferences. In constant need of updates. Expensive. Fragile.
You can drop your Tin Can Phone a hundred times without incurring any damage.
Can you say this about your Smart Phone?
If you seem to have a problem communicating with your spouse, please use a reliable, battle tested Tin Can Phone.
Alain