This is sorta quirky, but it made me laugh.
My mother, Joan Pearlman, is a wonderful woman who struggles with technology. She forwards messages best left unforwarded. She hangs up inadvertently when she’s talking on the phone. She e-mails when she means to text, and texts when she means to e-mail.
For example …
Yesterday evening I received an e-mail from my mother that read, “We:re at the beavh now waiting for firewks to begin.” Mom and I don’t live in the same state, so it took me a minute to realize she had almost certainly intended to text that sentence, not e-mail it. But … why? If she’s in Maine and I’m in California, why is it important for me to know that, “We:re at the beavh now waiting for firewks to begin”? Hmm …
I didn’t quite know what to do with this information, so I randomly texted it to three different people, just to see how they would respond. That first was Michael J. Lewis, my longtime writing pal, who reacted thusly …
The second was Bev Oden, also a longtime writing pal and former SI colleague …
The third, and best, involved Benny Agbayani. Yes, the Benny Agbayani who played outfield for the New York Mets in the early 2000s. I haven’t interviewed Benny Agbayani in, oh, 15 years, and I’m not even sure I’d recognize him were he to tap me on the shoulder and say, “Hi, I’m Benny Agbayani.” Whatever the case, I have his number in my phone. So, just because he hit 15 home runs for the 2000 Mets, I sent him my mom’s beautiful, inspired words.
And, because Benny Agbayani is Benny Agbayani, the man responded …
Awesome.
