Phone etiquette

[Ann Rutherford and Tom Conway in Two O’Clock Courage (dir. Anthony Mann, 1945. Click for a larger view.]

The Washington Post has tips about phone etiquette in our times (gift link). Useful stuff.

I’m not sure about the suggestion to stay still for video calls: “When people, especially kids, move around during a video call, it can be disorienting for the person on the other end.” It can also be charming, if, say, a grandchild is carrying the phone while walking from room to room to show you stuff. But the Post makes allowances: “The closer you are to someone, the less the rules apply.”

[No, the people in the movie are not talking to one another on pay phones. That would be, as they say, childish and immature, and best reserved for kids.]