CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | Contact
Betoota woman, Lilian Mack (30) has grown to accept that her boyfriend, Pete (31), doesn’t actually need a phone.
As a man that sucks at responding to messages, answering phone calls, and taking photos – Pete only really uses his device for fact-finding side quests.
No social media, no Strava. His WhatsApp remains unopened, unless someone tells him in person to look at it.
Basically, all Pete needs is unimpeded, constant access to Wikipedia – because what’s the point of knowing a bit about something. He also needs Google Maps – because not only does he want to know everything about the world, he also wants to see it. First with basic landmarks and roads, and then with terrain, then as a satellite image, then maybe a bit of street view action.
While this unorthodox approach to technology spares Pete from the brainrot of algorithms and A.I, it also means his girlfriend rarely gets a break from the facts.
For example, the other night Lillian put on a movie titled ‘The Talented Mr Ripley’ starring Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett and Philip Seymour Hoffman. A movie that she was able to watch from start to finish without feeling the need to research anything.
While Lilian was captivated by the thrilling story of betrayal and privilege set in the picturesque Italian coast of Liguria – Pete found himself fascinated by the the fact that the very town in which this movie takes place actually played host to The San Remo conference that took place between the 19th and 26th of April, 1920, and hosted the post-World War I Allied Supreme Council who determined the allocation of Class “A” League of Nations mandates for the administration of the former Ottoman-ruled lands of the Middle East by the victorious powers. The most notable of these was the British Mandate of Palestine.
San Remo’s colourful history as both a Sardinian and Genovese subject causes Pete to bounce over to Google maps, where he was interested to learn that it is located roughly ten 10 kilometres from the French border, as the crow flies. He returns to Wikipedia, only to discover that Jude Law was implicated in the News Of The World Phone Hacking scandal, alongside Hugh Grant, the British Royal family and several victims of the 2005 London Bombings, which was the UK’s deadliest terrorist incident since the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 near Lockerbie.
