Speaking with full voice in a relatively quiet place -- say, Hogan Bros. at mid-afternoon -- yes, that’s quite rude.

Here is what OSHA says on noise:
http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_id=9735&p_table=STANDARDS

I guess I view coffehouses and pubs as places for people to go and socialize. If they supply the ability for people to work that’s great, but if the environment interferes with your ability to work then leave. If a coffeehouse or pub wants to cater to the person showing up to login and do work in a quiet place, then by all means they should create that environment and make the rules.

I don’t know what the Wigley-line-in-the-sand is here, but if I’m out having a cup of coffee at a coffeehouse or a beer at a pub and I get a phone call and in turn I get a thumb-pinky phone gesture and a point on where to go, I’ll probably meet it with my own array of gestures if I don’t feel like I’m being rude.

All that being said if a committee is to be formed to figure out what annoying behavior to ban I’ll gladly volunteer my time and bring a long list of things I find annoying.

I believe there is a way to carry on a digital conversation politely in a public place, especially in a cafe already noisy with chatter.

I like to work outside of my studio apartment from time to time, which means calling people on my cell phone in public places. I was carrying on such a conversation in a cafe across the street when a group of women walked over to my table and began speaking with me as if I were not conducting an interview with someone over the phone. They said they needed my table and began pushing it toward another table so they could have some kind of discussion group (which was exceedingly loud). In the process of shoving my table out from under me, they nearly toppled my coffee onto my laptop and my laptop onto the floor. Not to mention I had to have the person on the phone repeat what he had just said. How rude!

I think we all must have funny cell phone stories. I was once in a movie theater in Las Vegas and the person sitting behind me answered their cell phone (which rang in the middle of the movie) and then proceeded to have a conversation, in their regular speaking voice, like they were just hanging out at in their living room. Completely oblivious to the fact that they were in a public theater. The person must have been asked by the caller what they were up to, because the response was, “Oh, nothing. I’m just at the movies.” Then it was just non-stop chit-chat for what seemed like forever. I’m surprised there wasn’t a mutiny (this was when cell phones were very new and not so commonly used. I think most of the audience members, myself included, were just so stunned we didn’t know how to respond!).

But, I do have a funny story relating to a cell phone user in a fairly fine family style restaurant just outside of Tulsa. I was having dinner with friends, and the man at the booth next to us gets a call, and for the next 3 to 4 minutes all we heard was “Ye ep, ye ep, ye ep” and each time we heard ‘ye ep’, it got louder and louder.

Two of my friends started laughing and they couldn’t stop. I didn’t think it was all that funny, but I started laughing because those two were laughing so hard by then. One friend only got upset because we were all laughing. I excused myself and went to the ladies room to keep from getting into any more trouble.

When the cell phone man got off the cell phone, he explained to his mates that his daughter was missing, took all his money and ran away from home with some dude. Not all that funny. Morals of the story, some calls you just have to take while sitting down, surrounded by friends, and don’t laugh at one sided conversations.

Got that off my chest, I feel better now.