It's amazing how few people have a corded phone any more. Many don't even know that there is such a thing as a line-powered phone. No wonder they freak out when the power goes off: it's as if civilization has come to an end. I always tell people to wrap up their old corded phone and tuck it in the basement.

On the cell phone side, I've gone back to simple Nokia candy-bar phones, which can do voice and text and not much else. But they punch out a signal even when smart phones have conked out. The beauty is that the chargers have a standard-size barrel plug, and extras are easy to find in the $1 bin at the secondhand store.