Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for October 27, 2013

How about the SFFC (“Stephan’s fishing for comments”) phenomenon?

At least Rat’s not in this one.

It’s funny because it’s true!

Try enraged frustration

Ron Schnell came up with the following protocol to follow concerning dropped phone calls:

“Whenever a call is inadvertently dropped, the party who initiated the original call shall initiate the new call.”

This works well because:

The person being called doesn’t necessarily have the phone number of the person who called (or doesn’t have easy access to it).It’s easy to redial.

I tell my friends to use this protocol and it has saved us a lot of time and frustration. I recommend that everyone use it!

The really odd thing about this is that Pig is thinking just like Goat.

I’m surprised to see Pig using big words like “phenomenon”.

We already have words. Try “monopoly” or “regulatory capture”.

It’s a US-only problem. In the rest of the world, only the caller is billed. In the US, everyone gets billed.

It would be trivial for the providers to detect and connect you, but they make more not to (at least a minute for each call to voice mail), so why would they? Plus they charge airtime to later call in and delete the voice mails.

I call it “Doing the Mobile Mambo.”

I can just laugh at it all, not having a cell phone to worry over….

I don’t get it. If Pig is in his house, why is he talking on a cell phone?! Truly a Pig of little brain…

Dyssynchronicity?

I thought all cell phones had “call waiting” as one of the features. Whomever calls back should be able to get through — if the other party knows how to pick up the call when it comes in. No need to leave a voice-mail message.

Good one, MS. (I miss Paddy!)

Comic strip artists don’t make enough money to be able to afford cell phones, so they don’t know much about them.

Yea. it’s bring back the CROCS you idiot!

I am surprised that Goat does not think a little faster than pig. I would think that goat would reach the conclusion that both are waiting on the other sooner.

It’s call LIFE.

Better yet be like Rat…just hang up.

Simple: phOnomenon.

I always call right back and all my friends know that except one. He always, ALWAYS, leaves a message on my voicemail which is interrupted by the beep of my calling back.

People still use the telephone for talking?

@Sisyphos, Destiny23: Cell phones are indispensable now and a necessary tool, except for those living in caves. Try finding a pay phone in an emergency, even in the city. Even some businesses won’t let you use their phones. Many people use them exclusively rather than landlines because they’re a better value. Maybe pig’s small brain is larger than yours.

They are so CUTE!

In networking the phenomenon is called connection collision.

I’ve that happen before but with texting.

It’s quite irritating but sometimes it’s funny.

xxx

Very much a part of today’s society. How many f us can’t say this has happened to them? You have a phone conversation an someone goes into a dead zone and you try saying “should I call them back or wait and see if they call me back?” What’s really fun is to say “Hello? You still there?” when you first get that silence of a lost call cause you’re not sure if you just lost the call or if the other person has just gone silent for some reason.

I don’t use my phone much. So, combine that fact with my spare high capacity battery/charger, and the fact that I can make calls and text from my laptop, and I’d be good for days (maybe even weeks) in the event of a power outage.

(The “charger” is itself a battery that is capable of charging other batteries, even two at a time.)

When both get billed, you have protection from telemarketers. If it cost you money, they can’t call you. It is sad that they are trying to change that.

Long before there were cell phones and ‘dropped calls,’ people would talk on their landlines and get ‘disconnected.’ I was taught a long time ago that the standard courtesy was for the caller to call back.

@thrush: I learned that as a kid! My mother used to be a phone operator. Taught it to my kids later on!

This is close:mamihlapinatapai means “a look shared by two people with each wishing that the other will initiate something that both desire but which neither one wants to start.”

Our family & friend rule is, if the call is dropped, the person who initiated the call is the one who calls again.

I think everyone “got that”. It was mentioned enough in the earlier comments. Whom was your remark addressed to, anyway?

“Symphony”