They Came to Hear Mahler, Not an iPhone Re "Ringing Finally Ended, but There's No Button to Stop Shame" (news article, Jan. 13): Thanks for two striking emblems of our society's dysfunction. First, cellphone blockers installed in theaters and concert halls are long overdue - the logical solution, yet it is never done. Typical! And second, there is the fact that "Patron X" put his device in silent mode, and it disrupted the concert anyway. That is because we just adore the geeks who run rampant with their bells and whistles in practically everything they design, forcing us with their dazzling cleverness into absurdities like marimbas during Mahler's sublime music. How utterly typical! In Austria, I have seen an excellent way to ensure that cellphones are turned off during performances. Just before a performance begins, the ushers in theaters and concert halls walk around with their loudly ringing cellphones held high. It is a gesture that is impossible to overlook or to misunderstand. It is also rather amusing. And it works.