Nonexistent public phone photo

I took this photo of a nonexistent public phone at San Francisco's Moscone Convention Center. As the sign says, the phone is apparently out of order.

[#1 posted by chromal , August 22, 2008 10:36 AM]

My favorites are the banks of many multiple payphones in the old circular departure gate terminals at SFO where each one's been stripped of the phone, leaving rows of empty booths. The thought of a suited businessman on a payphone in an airport is a bizarre throwback to the 80s and before.

[#2 posted by justinkeller , August 22, 2008 10:58 AM]

Just like the picture of this urinal I took that was apparently broken.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bearlikemouse/2775389560/

[#3 posted by Comedian , August 22, 2008 11:05 AM]

I took a similar shot of a missing "courtesy phone" at Dulles back in 2001.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37815348@N00/560557906/

That's when I knew the magic had gone out of air travel.

[#4 posted by doc_roswell , August 22, 2008 12:07 PM]

These never get old.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/maxwellm/2786929953/

I don't know whether to call it "obvious" or "redundant." Both have their charms.

[#5 posted by rikchik , August 22, 2008 12:38 PM]

The sign's accurate - the correct order is "phone installed, you use the phone, phone uninstalled." This one is out of order.

[#6 posted by Enochrewt , August 22, 2008 2:01 PM]

This is the picture taken from the "Payphones from around the world" page of 2600 if it was published in Hell.

[#7 posted by dccarles , August 22, 2008 2:32 PM]

Uhh...shouldn't this be 'Out on order', not 'Out of order?'

[#8 posted by filmburner , August 22, 2008 7:11 PM]

Goes to show that you can't believe everything you see, that picture is "staged". The backboard is resting in front of a blanked out BPH door. Those enclosures don't use that type of backboard, and I was the person who took out the last AT&T phones at the Moscone, and that was not there.

[#9 posted by farrellmcgovern , August 22, 2008 7:28 PM]

I donno...a pair of alligator clips, a small, cheap portable phone with the wires stipped, attack clips, and maybe, free calls?

Nah....

[#10 posted by Crawford Tillinghast , August 22, 2008 9:23 PM]

You're ALL out of order...!

[#11 posted by Iason , August 25, 2008 1:26 AM]

I have a flickr photoset that includes a few shots of the sad empty spaces phones used to take up. All taken with my cellphone cam, of course.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blargos/sets/476814/