maybe this needs to be an open letter to fandom

[healingmirth]

Okay. Am I the only one who has never, ever, in the past 10ish years of having a cell phone, heard a dial tone at either end of the call? Because these mythical cell phones with dial tones are *everywhere* in fic, I swear.

Also, I have had it up to here with the present-day US-set fics which demonstrate a complete disregard for current airport security procedures. It is highly, HIGHLY unlikely that when picking someone up at LAX, that you will be at the gate, or in any other position to watch them deplane.

This makes me glad, for once, that I do not know more things, because I would just be endlessly frustrated and wanting to smack people through their monitors. Please, when I do something so blatantly innaccurate, tell me.

Sigh.

Comments

[kate]

Huh. I've never noticed the dial tone thing, probably because I remember the good old days sans cell phones, and dial tone is still a part of my sense memory. Also, I hate cell phones and rarely talk on them. BUT. Checking my last use of such, I said something about hanging up with a click, and no dial tone, so go me!

And I must not be reading the fics you're reading, because I've never read someone being at the gate when someone else deplanes. That would annoy me too.

And I just have to say, I'm with you on huge inaccuracies like that - I worked in an emergency room, and the lack of knowledge about hospital procedures and the like in fic is enough to make me pull my hair out sometimes. D:

[healingmirth]

I think that in most of the fic I read, people are communicating via text message or email instead of cell phone, so it makes the hanging up that much more obvious when it happens. Of course, my cell phone drops/ends calls absolutely silently, which is also really frustrating, so I'm sure there are cell phones designed to beep or something, or at least I would believe one in fiction. But dial tone, notsomuch. Argh.

Your fandoms seem to mostly travel by military transport or private plane, so perhaps the airport security is not so much a problem for them, either :)

This perhaps explains my wikipedia addiction. Even if wikipedia isn't infallible, at least it helps with my terror of getting (factual) things wrong.