So far I have eschewed the cell phone, but I once had a digital watch that would give a little "beepbeep!" at the top of the hour. It used to go off at some of the damnedest times. I kept forgetting to turn it off when I should have. But I'm not the only one. Once at an opera, there was a dramatic point in the plot (such as it was) during which the orchestra and the singers were taking a four-bar rest. It happened right at the top of the hour, and suddenly during that brief silence it sounded like the whole opera house was undergoing a plague of crickets.

Don Firth