My dumb cellphone

About a week ago, the display screen on my cellphone stopped working. As I am used to thinking of a cellphone as a complete collection of functionality, I dismissed the whole phone as broken and began the search for a new one. Shopping for cellphones is just above getting shot in the gut & bleeding painfully for several hours on my fun meter, so I’ve been procrastinating the task.

In the meantime, I’ve realized that my supposedly busted Nokia is still a completely functional telephone. I can’t see who’s calling, see if I have voicemail, read SMS messages, check the signal or battery strength, or dial using my phone book, but I can both call out (by manually dialing numbers) and receive calls no problem. All I need is a rotary dialing mechanism and I’m back to a circa-1980 telephone experience.