TELEPHONE BOOKEND

摘要

Landline phones seem to be going the way of the telegraph-more than a quarter of U.S. households have gotten rid of them since 1992, according to the Census Bureau. But I'm not sure this rush to embrace new technology is such a good idea. The landline phone is the Clark Kent of telecommunications: overlooked and underappreciated, but the thing that just might save you in a large-scale emergency. While cellphone towers can get overloaded, this superhero in disguise has its own electrical system that still works when the lights go out. There are even ways to access the phone jack's electricity to, say, power up a small lamp. But that's illegal and possibly dangerous, so I'm not recommending it; I'm just saying that landlines are secretly cool.