I was cleaning out a folder of emails and found a treasure trove of 20-year-old emails I should have deleted 20 years ago. Interestingly enough, 20-plus years ago, there was someone known as the GO-MAN:
I just got this email from The GO-MAN (Ryan Taylor) and I also got my free stock in a matter of minutes. You might want to take the time to get your free stock too. A tech company is going public. To enhance its visibility, it is giving away shares of stock for free. Registering for free shares is really easy, just go to the site and click on the "get free stock" option. You get 5 shares for registering, and 1 extra share for each person you recommend it to who signs up (up to a total of 20). Its free and they don't ask for any personal information beyond name and address, so they can register the stock shares and mail them to you. It is also easy and not very time consuming.
This message sounds highly far-fetched, even from 20-plus years ago. Beyond this being a good reminder that nothing is ever free, what rights and benefits do I have as a shareholder?
And who the heck was The GO-MAN? While I assume the free stock was some promotional BS, Ryan Taylor sounds genuine. But where did he get his nickname, and what made him go? Better yet, 20-plus years later, is Ryan still going?
Speaking of names, this reminds me of an article I read not too long ago about the ancient city of Pompeii. I used to think it was named after the Roman statesman Pompey the Great until I read the city was centuries old when the general was born. All pomp, no circumstance, I guess. But Pompey – have you ever known anyone with the name Pompey? I know some are out there, but I've never met one. We have plenty of Steves and Bobs and Mikes and –
Ah, Mike. We had a Mike – Michael Planter – as an end-of-semester speaker a few weeks ago. If we're lucky, the school shells out a few bucks for one person to gab once a semester. More than one if we're not lucky. I didn't quite get Mike's schtick. He wasn't a motivational speaker, and what might pass as folksy charms were stale. One thing I caught was, as part of his introduction, he casually remarked, "They call me Mikey." I pick up on strange asides and mannerisms, so my ears naturally perked up. Who does? When? All meeting invitations and promotional flyers called him Mike. The dean introduced him as Mike. Mike referred to himself as Mike at least a dozen times during the program. Who really calls him Mikey? It seemed a silly throwaway line and a bit pretentious, but it's what I found myself focused on for the remainder of the presentation. There was a question-and-answer session at the end where Myron dared me to clarify Mikey's remark. I didn't bother and said it wasn't worth it.
Another coworker recently referred to tweezers as the "thingys that grab". We're almost to the point where the phrase loses its humorous undertones, though I would wager it has another week left.
No comments:
Post a Comment