Sunday Evening

I just listened to my pal Bob Claster's 1987 interview with Terry Jones of Monty Python fame. I thought I'd listened to all of Bob's fine interviews with great comedians which he has up on his website but I apparently missed the Jones one first time around. It's quite funny and perceptive…and bittersweet now to think that that fine mind of his no longer functions as it did when this was recorded. Check out all the stuff over at www.bobclaster.com.


Thank you to all the folks who've written in to tell me that any case made for the iPhone SE will fit my iPhone 5S. That may help…though it looks to me like all the cases being made for iPhones these days are either way too ornate (especially those that make the phones markedly larger and less likely to fit into a pocket) or very flimsy.


Speaking of my iPhone: Friday and Saturday, I received a series of text messages from a Nevada phone number I don't recognize. Each message said something like "hey babe" or "miss you" — all lower-case and no punctuation — and attached was a selfie photo of a rather attractive woman I've never seen before in my life. I was kind of curious to see where this was all leading.

Well, a few minutes ago, I got a voice call from the same number. On the other end of the line was a woman who sounded like she wasn't far from being the worst actress in the world. Here's roughly how the call went…

HER: Hey, babe. Why don't you text me back? Don't you love me anymore?

ME: I don't recall that I ever did. Who is this?

HER: You know who this is. We haven't talked in months but I didn't think you'd forget me so soon. And all this time, I've been thinking about you, hoping we could get together soon. I just really need to see you, babe and be with you.

ME: Oh, really? Well, what do you have in mind that would make this happen?

HER: I just need transportation from Las Vegas to your city and I'm sure you'd want to help me out. You see, I don't have a credit card so I can't get an airplane ticket to come be with you. If you could let me have your number, I swear I'd just use it for the ticket. Then you could pick me up at the airport and we could go to your place.

ME: Wow, this is going to be great. Is American Express okay? My number is 387 91526…

No, I didn't say that last line. What I actually said was, "Sorry. Call the next guy and see if he's dumber than I am," then I hung up and blocked her number. How many people do we think fall for this?

And on reflection, I wish I'd let the conversation go on a little longer. I'm wondering if once her initial pitch failed, she would have tried to sell me solar paneling for my home.