A few years ago, I found myself on a train in Switzerland. A country with many quirks, they do get their trains right. The train was timely, clean, and quiet — velvety quiet, like the inside of an empty movie theater. Carpeting on the walls installed to deaden the noise. On the train, a man’s phone rang — he answered and began a conversation in bright tones.
An elderly Swiss man pulled himself up out of his seat, hobbled over, and gently tapped the shoulder of the man on the phone. After speaking to him in Swiss-German — there was evidence of a language gap — the elderly man then pointed at a sign with a red “X” over a cellphone and put his finger to his lips in the universal “shushing” motion. The man on the phone understood, made a gesture of apology, and ended his call. The elderly man, contented by this manifestation of justice, hobbled back to his seat.
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