LIBERATE TUTEME

I got a new cell phone recently and the manufacturer, in their infinite wisdom, decided that it was smart to have an "emergency" mode that makes it able to pocket dial 911 even when it's locked. It's only happened once so far, but it was while I was merging in rush hour traffic.

I don't want to mess around with mine too much for that very reason, but mine still brings up a keypad, which I guess makes sense if you're trying to dial an "emergecy" number, like emergency contacts they make you put in at work before you resort to 911. Seems like you could also just dial up a friend to come pick you up and cricket the thing, but I dunno. The worst with me was when I still had a landline in college. We sort of had it in the center of the living room between the two chairs, and the cat would regularly get up on the phone. And it was one of those old people phones with the police, fire and.. what was the third one's (?) buttons at the top, at least 3 times bigger than the rest of them. The cat called 911 on a bunch of pot smoking underage drinkers at least 10 times when I lived there.

When I worked 911 the butt dial from a cellphone was common and we would attempt to call you back to let you know what happened, barring an actual emergency and to make sure you were safe.

Were we busy you were on your own because most 911/dispatch ain't got the technology to triangulate jack or shit.

Yeah, I had to pull over and wait for the callback.

This toy seems like a bad idea to begin with. The only situation I can see it useful is where mom and dad are tied up but the intruders don't consider the baby, and the baby recognizes it as an emergency, but chances are the intruders have already ripped the landlines out of the wall, if people even use landlines anymore. More likely, this is just positive reinforcement for dialing 3 numbers and nothing more.

I don't think this toy is meant to teach baby to dial 911, IZ. It's simply there to get baby used to the idea of living in a paranoid, fear-driven society.

I feel like the fear centers in our brain demand to be used for something, and since we don't have to worry about famine, war, or pestilence, we find and/or construct new threats to seize upon. (Though the anti-vaxxers are doing their damnedest to bring pestilence back in fashion.)

I appreciate your reference!