Valarie Goes High Tech

I had dinner with Valarie, the former Operations Manager of the DU Bookstore - not to mention the former owner of Denver's Capitol Hill Bookstore - at 730 South last night.  Valarie recently traded in her flip phone for an Apple i-Phone, with which she can send text messages and e-mails, take photographs, access the Internet, make  posts on Facebook, and send out messages into deep space looking for intelligent life out there.  Meanwhile, I recently bought a new flip phone after my old one fell into the toilet.  With dismay I learned it does not store the names and phone numbers of people who have called you, or of people you have recently called.  It even no longer automatically turns on when you open it up.  Another $20 wasted.  Valarie was not sympathetic, as she sat across the table and texted Mars.  What has ever happened to empathy in this brave new world?