Panic in the Office

Yesterday I got email from a stranger - an actual person. This happens periodically, since I have one of those "common" email addresses. This time it was a joke about nuns golfing, and had the odd bad word in it. It was sent from a work email address with a signature including phone, address, email, web site, so I decided to answer. I said:

"...if you're going to use a work email address to mail around profanities, you might want to take a bit more care not to send to strangers. This is the kind of thing that would inspire someone to complain to your postmaster or to file a spam report, and that's not good for business."

I do that sometimes. It amuses me. This time, I got a response, from the president of the company no less:
"First, I wanted to apologize to you for an unprofessional, on several levels, sending to you of an e-mail titled 'the golfing nun'.

For the record, I am not only the President of the company, but also a practicing Catholic and member of the school board. My firm does not send Spam nor do I allow junk mails to be sent around from my servers. Equally disconcerting is the fact that the originator of the e-mail, a senior rep with company, name remained on the email and was the originator.

The employee who sent you this e-mail is relatively new. She was sending it to a friend of hers who is a golfer. When she got your reply, she immediately brought it to me and was very apologetic to me for embarrassing the company and assured me that she would not forward emails again. The originator of the email has been cautioned in circulating junk-mail interoffice as well. I judge people not by careless or immature errors in judgment, but rather by how they act when confronted with something that needs correction. My employee did the right thing in promptly bringing her mistake to my attention.

In reviewing the particular e-mail, it was questionable, but not profane. That said, it was offensive at certain levels. I sincerely apologize if you were offended if any way.

Please let me know if you have any questions. "

He is correct. The "f-word" is an obscenity, not a profanity. I stand corrected - and extremely amused.

Public Phone Calls, part 1

I hear a lot of people talking on their cell phones every day. Some of it's harmless, some of it's things I'd rather not hear, and some of it I really shouldn't be hearing. I've decided to describe overheard conversations that should not be public. Maybe someone will notice and get the hint that ignoring people while you chat doesn't make them nonexistent or even deaf.

A few days ago, I was riding on a crowded city bus. There was a man sitting near me, juggling his cell phone and his PDA. He was a psychologist, setting up a first appointment for a new patient. I can tell you his name, the names that are really on the office door and buzzer (he's not), the precise location of his office as well as directions to get there from east of town where this patient was coming from, and the time and date of the appointment. He charges $120 an hour (he says), but he schedules his own appointments rather than having a receptionist, gives out his cell number as an office number, is not listed as being in the office, and clearly has no awareness of HIPAA or other privacy-related legislation. This is not someone I would even consider trusting as a mental health professional.

Just because you can talk on the phone everywhere, that doesn't make it a guaranteed good idea.

Quatrains

I have a newfound respect for Nostradamus. Somewhat for the predictions, which are impressive for their sheer volume. And somewhat for making things believable enough that people take it seriously and yet vague enough that you can't say "ha, he was wrong." But mostly for the quatrains.

I have this great prediction that fits the vague-yet-believable standard, but I just can't make a quatrain. I wish I were a poet. Ideally a poet that can integrate vague terms, metaphors and allegorical imagery, and the occasional made-up word that can be anagrammed about a bazillion ways. Oh well.

Hoedi?