{"id":18993,"date":"2011-12-15T16:46:01","date_gmt":"2011-12-16T00:46:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spiken.wpengine.com\/news\/editorial-invasion-of-the-phone-zombies-dennis-box\/"},"modified":"2016-10-23T08:55:28","modified_gmt":"2016-10-23T15:55:28","slug":"editorial-invasion-of-the-phone-zombies-dennis-box","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/opinion\/editorial-invasion-of-the-phone-zombies-dennis-box\/","title":{"rendered":"Editorial | Invasion of the phone zombies | Dennis Box"},"content":{"rendered":"

I like to watch movies. I grew up watching movies with my grandma and I knew all the stars from the \u201820s, \u201830s and \u201840s by the time I was 10.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

I watched part of \u201cA Summer Place\u201d<\/a> Sunday. It\u2019s a 1959 picture starring Sandra Dee and Troy Donahue as steamy teenagers. They are playing across Richard Egan and one of old Hollywood\u2019s greatest, Dorothy McGuire.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

I thought the film held up better today then it did in the \u201860s.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The cinematographer, Harry Stradling Sr., was a pioneer with Technicolor. He knew how to shoot a scene.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Here is another movie we might consider from the \u201850s that can inform us about our world today \u2014 the 1956 film \u201cInvasion of the Body Snatchers,\u201d<\/a> directed by Don Seigel, staring Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

At the time it was made it was making reference to the communist hunting going on in Hollywood and across the county.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The picture could be recast today as \u201cInvasion of the Phone Zombies.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

I am occasionally accused of being grumpy by everyone who even marginally knows me or sees me.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Despite what has been rumored, I am Mr. Happy-Happy \u2014 you know, joy to the world and all that stuff.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

However, smarty-pants phones have been making me a little grouchy lately.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

There has been some discussion by a certain writer (who shall remain anonymous, we will call her Kris Hill) talking about the wonders of her stupid smart phone.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

I have a phone that is meant for talking, rather than communicating with the god of lunacy, for a price and a contract.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

If I am not mistaken a guy with funny hair named Faust taught us something about contracts.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

But someone likes to put her phones in a reclining lawn chair next to her computer with a palm tree and sun lamp.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

I am not saying that is weird, but, just think about the invasion of the phone zombies.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

I can see myself right now. Just like Kevin McCarthy playing Dr. Miles J. Bennell, I will be trapped in my office with Dana Wynter playing Becky. The zombies have us surrounded, waving their smart phones at us maliciously.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Becky gives the best line of the movie at this point. \u201cWhy don\u2019t they give us a shot or a sleeping pill or something?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

At that point I have to say something cool so the girl doesn\u2019t think I\u2019m a dope and run off with the phone zombie and ruin the movie.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

I have discovered, covertly, I am not the only one left fighting the dumb phone cause.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The other day I was at a meeting and Andy the Great nodded for me to come over to him.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

He turned sideways so no one could see, then pulled out his phone and smiled.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

It was a dumb phone.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

A fellow traveler sent me an email yesterday quietly admitting he also had a dumb phone and intended to keep it.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Oh yeah. We are out there. The struggle continues.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Soon we will be expected to put our phones in a reclining chair, play music to be bored by and make little bug sacrifices to it at noon.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

As Dr. Miles J. Bennell said at the end of the movie \u2014 be careful, you could be next.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I like to watch movies. I grew up watching movies with my grandma and I knew all the stars from the \u201820s, \u201830s and \u201840s by the time I was 10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":215,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-18993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18993"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/215"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18993\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18993"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=18993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}