Friday, May 19, 2017

Subtexting

The purpose of this blog is to turn the Friday night dinner into a "Stopping".... Please forward / like / tweet....
In memory of Doni Bulow, February 16, 1994 - May 19, 2013.

Vezmar 2Let's get right to the first question for your table:

Context: Assume there is no emergency.

What do you think of someone texting during a conversation with you:

a. Normal, no problem.
b. Slightly rude.
c. Very rude.
d. Unethical.
e. Criminal.


See the guy in this picture?

His name is Brandon Vezmar. He lives in Austin and this is his story.

He takes a young woman out on a first date. He takes her to the movies. He lays out seventeen dollars each.

In the middle of the movie she starts texting.

He asks her to stop.

She refuses.

He asks her if she wouldn't mind doing it out in the foyer.

So she obliges.

But then she doesn't come back.

Oh, by the way, they came in her car.

Meaning, he has no ride home.

At some point Brandon realizes that he has been jilted.

But he also feels gyped.

The next day he asks her to reimbuse him the seventeen bucks.

She refuses.

In her defense, she says she only texted "two or three times."

(In her first interview, she said the purpose of the texting was "
a friend who was upset over breaking up with her boyfriend" but later she claimed that the friend wanted "to make sure she was safe on the date".)

So he is suing her for $17.31 in small claims court, arguing his date's behavior was "a threat to civilised society".


Question 2 for your table: What do you think? Does Branson have a case?

UPDATE - Yesterday, someone brought them together for a little mediation and he is withdrawing the suit.

Third question: Is shutting off the phone for a few hours an occasional inconvenient necessity, or is it a healthy practice to aspire to (as many Jews happily do a few minutes before sunset on Friday)?

(If you suspect it might be really good for you, you might want to read what Huffington Post , American Express, Forbes and others and others have to say.)


Shabbat Shalom

PS - It could be worse - consider the newlywed husband who filed for divorce on his wedding night because his bride refused to stop texting.
PPS - For a more hopeful and uplfiting first-date story, read about the centigenarians who were born on the same day in 1917 and were set up on a blind date a couple weeks ago.


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