Often, in a television show or movie, I see a person in a hospital, talking on their cell phone. They are sometimes just outside the patient's room, or in a hallway outside the room, or in a corridor. I know it's for dramatic effect good news "he's out of the coma!", or bad news "the virus has liquefied her liver", but all for the advancement of the plot.

I know this is all horribly fake. I know this because I was nearly impaled in a hospital cafeteria by a woman who worked there. "Are you talking on the PHONE?" she acted like I was emptying a vial of e-coli into the food or something. I had seen people on their cell phones all through the hallway, even though the signs said NOT to. I figured the cafeteria, away from the area where patients were, would be safe. Evidently not.

I hate that feeling of being singled out like that, everyone turns to stare. It immediately makes me feel like I'm a kid and I'm in trouble. (that didn't happen that much, so I find I still blush or get really self conscious) I hung up, turned my phone off and went outside to continue to share the good news of my newly arrived niece.

So when I watch TV shows or movies with scenes like that, I just tsk tsk them. It's just another in a long line of fallacies (like the speedy results of DNA tests) that have us thinking things are one way, when they really aren't.

It's on TV, though, it MUST be true, right?