Pick Up! I Know You're Home...

Sorry for the delay, y’all. It’s been a busy few weeks, and blogging took a back seat to…well…life. Never fear! I am here. I would be lying, though, if I said I had some burning issue that brought be back to the keyboard. However, I have obtained some new readers of late, and they are crying for new material.

As our level of technology of our society increases, we obviously gain capability, but we also loose some little things along the way. You know what I’m going to miss? Answering machines as plot devices. Remember how a movie or a television show could tell you exactly what was going on by having the main protagonist (or even a support character) walk into their apartment after a long day and hit play on the answering machine? Recently former ex-lovers could leave a longing message begging for reconciliation. Meddling mothers could leave repeated messages asking why a son or daughter is still single. A police detective could save the last message his wife left for him before dying in a horrific car accident that very same night and could play it over and over as he ponders his loneliness. OK, that last one was a little much, but I DID see it in a movie. And who could forget the “tippy-toe” episode of Seinfeld!?

Yet, our beloved answering machine is on the way out. Really, when is the last time you saw one of these devices? It’s all about the voicemail now, and for good reason. Even the most advanced of these clunky machines wear out eventually, and why would anyone pay money for a machine to do something that your phone service will do for you cheaply and efficiently anyway? As a result, I haven’t seen an answering machine in a movie for years. Now writers have reverted to using the inefficient and tired old flashback to give us the back-story on our characters. I guess it’s true…you really can’t go home again.