Mr. Watson -- come here -- I want to... borrow your mobile phone.

Sometime during the past few evenings, the pay phones were uninstalled from the lobby of my office building.


In the two years I've worked in this particular building, I've neither used nor seen anyone else use those phones. I suppose the fact that I snapped the above picture with the camera built into my BlackBerry just about says it all.

Although these buildings are not especially old (judging by the location of that middle phone, probably newer than the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990), mobile phone technology has been so widely and rapidly adopted across all demographic groups and professions that the bank of pay phones in this alcove seemed nearly as anachronistic as a hitching post would out front.

Once the wall is patched-up over the weekend, I wonder what this little space will become. I'm guessing that, come Monday, there'll be a Starbucks there.