My wife went shopping for a stove. The oven on ours pooped out several months ago, and with the upheaval of job loss, job search, and impending move, we’ve not replaced it yet. The new renter might want to bake cookies, though, so Anita went into acquisition mode yesterday.
She thinks she intimidated the salesman who might not have been used a woman striding in and saying exactly what she wanted. He explained that they could deliver, install, and cart away the old appliance. She said it needed to happen by Thursday. He said they could only guarantee three-day delivery. Anita pulled out her phone. Immediately, he said, “But I can call the guys we contract to do this and get them to move it up. We can make it work.”
A bit later in the conversation, another sticking point came up. Anita pulled out the phone again (to call me, this time) and within seconds the problem was resolved.
“If I had known,” my dear wife said, “What a powerful gesture whipping out the cell phone was, I would have gotten one of these years ago.”
Brilliant.
Catholic Sensibility 
This is funny because just last week, my youngest son (10) spent all of his money on a flip phone…which I thought was a little ridiculous since he doesn’t talk on the phone…but he thought it would ‘look cool’ when he flips it out…I guess James Bond or someone must have impressed him with the gesture…and then there are those built-in video games.