[no subject]

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From: msb@vex.net (Mark Brader)
Subject: Re: NYT: Stats of Cell Phone Use in Poorer Countries

I'm reminded of the following story that Miguel Cruz posted here
last year...

|  Reminds me of a story from when I lived in Saudi Arabia in 1997.  One
|  of my co-workers was having dinner at someone's home.  Suddenly, three
|  men in ambiguous government uniforms burst into the house.  Talking
|  only among themselves, they looked around for a while and then stomped
|  off into the back room.  The stunned hosts and guest just sat there,
|  not knowing if they were going to be arrested, or what.  There was some
|  noise in the back, and the wife wondered if something was happening to
|  her children, but her husband said he thought she better stay put in
|  the dining room.  After a while, the men returned from the back, left
|  wordlessly through the front door, and drove away.
|  
|  The man went to the back room to see what had happened.  When he came
|  back to the dining room, there were tears in his eyes.  His wife,
|  fearing the worst, screamed.  Trying to be calm, my co-worker put on
|  his most reassuring voice and asked the man what he had seen.
|  
|  "Our telephone!" the man gasped between tears of shock that soon
|  emerged as joy.  "We ordered it in 1985!  I'd totally forgotten about
|  it!  It's finally here!"