Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Interesting

As you may or may not know, Google owns the company (blogspot) that runs the blogging service that I use. Google also has an email service called "gmail", which came along after the blogging service. The first "gmail" accounts were offered to users of other Google services before they were offered to the general public. In fact, "gmail" may still be available by invitation only.

Anyhow, being early to the table allowed me to get an unfettered email address. So instead of "jsmith30437@gmail.com", I got the equivalent of "jsmith@gmail.com." That's pretty cool. The problem is that every Paul, Phyllis, Patricia, Peter, Padma, Pamela and a few Phils and Philips, who share my last name, will, on occasion, give out my email address as theirs, forgetting to add in that extra stuff that makes their email unique and different from mine.

So I get a lot of real email intended for other people. I often write back to straighten them out, which is usually appreciated.

The other interesting thing that happens is that I share a name with a famous NY Yankees pitcher. I get some email intended for him. Here's an example from a fan.



About a year ago another fan noticed that "I" was on injured reserve, and wondered if I could show up at his son's Bar Mitzvah, since I wasn't playing at the time. I told him I was a chemist. He said that if I could pull it off, he'd hire me. He was sure I'd be cheaper.

So that's all for now. Bye