My new phone is SO COOL!!!

It occurred to me a couple weeks ago that I had no telephone in my house that would work without being plugged into the wall. This was bothersome. As a child of the earthquake state, I feel that it's imperative that there be a few earthquake-preparedness items in the home any time, at all times. A working flashlight in every room, plenty of bottled water, and a battery-powered radio, to name a few. A corded, non-electric phone also is on that list.
So then it becomes, where does one find a phone like that these days? I first thought about the totally cool, clear plastic slimline phone I had in college with the bright-colored wiring and parts in it. Mom bought that one for me at Radio Shack. I have since boycotted Radio Shack (on an un-related matter) and put a pax on the company, so checking out that store was out of the question. My next thought was, of course, Target.
You know, next time you're in Target, go down the aisle of cordless and corded phones. The cordless phones are plentiful. The corded phones are, shall we say, lacking in numbers. In fact, I found only one corded phone that required no power at all to use it. (The others had answering machines built into them.) It was an AT&T, white, corded slimline phone ... best part: $5.99.
What I loved the most was the phone's packaging: very simple box, AT&T's white and blue colors, well-taped so no one can open it and remove the phone, and in large lettering, "NO AC-POWER CORD IS REQUIRED TO USE THIS PHONE." This last part I love in particular, because it seems to scream its usefulness to those people who never knew that a phone without a power cord could possibly work.