I don’t know who did this, at a payphone in Long Island City, but going forward, whenever possible, I will do the same, as a tribute to whatever inspired someone to hang up a payphone handset on the roof of its enclosure. Was it frustration? Art? Heaven-reaching ennui? Who the hell knows?

At first I thought handsets could only sail this high at phones with unusually long cords (huh-huh). It turns out the enclosure itself makes this possible. The older ones, from the 1980s, are at lower height than newer ones, and have flat roofs. The newer, ULTRA-MODERN 1990s-era enclosures are taller, and some have curved roofs, making a handset arrangement like this impossible.

Next time you see an old enclosure like this maybe pay some respect, and hang up the phone on the roof of its enclosure. It could become an urban code connecting those who recognize what a payphone is, awakening their presence to those who do not.