As I've mentioned before, I get a lot of misdirected email, most of it written in German, for other women with my name. When these emails appear to be from real people, I will write back and let them know they have the wrong address. Sometimes they reply to say thank you, sometimes I never hear from them again.
Today, I got an amazing response from someone at a German think tank who had sent me (thinking I was a different me) a report on food trends. (I didn't know food trends were reported on by think tanks, but the word snackification appears in the otherwise very German table of contents, which made me inexplicably pleased). I told her that she had the wrong email address and she replied: "Okay. Thank you for letting me know. Would you give me the right one?"
I briefly enjoyed the idea that there could be some kind of contact directory accessible to all people with the same name, where we all know how to reach each other should there be any confusion. It would be so wonderful: all Joe Smiths in the world would know about all the other Joe Smiths! You could ask any one of them to help you find the one you're looking for! I imagined asking this misguided person exactly which Julia she was trying to contact, thumbing through the directory—in my imagination this directory is one of those old rolodexes you can actually thumb through—and ah ha! There's Julia #4591, in Frankfurt, the one who indulges in occassional snackification.
Alas, I was forced to concede that while we share the same name, that other Julia remain as unknown to me as any other person I've never met.
Today, I got an amazing response from someone at a German think tank who had sent me (thinking I was a different me) a report on food trends. (I didn't know food trends were reported on by think tanks, but the word snackification appears in the otherwise very German table of contents, which made me inexplicably pleased). I told her that she had the wrong email address and she replied: "Okay. Thank you for letting me know. Would you give me the right one?"
I briefly enjoyed the idea that there could be some kind of contact directory accessible to all people with the same name, where we all know how to reach each other should there be any confusion. It would be so wonderful: all Joe Smiths in the world would know about all the other Joe Smiths! You could ask any one of them to help you find the one you're looking for! I imagined asking this misguided person exactly which Julia she was trying to contact, thumbing through the directory—in my imagination this directory is one of those old rolodexes you can actually thumb through—and ah ha! There's Julia #4591, in Frankfurt, the one who indulges in occassional snackification.
Alas, I was forced to concede that while we share the same name, that other Julia remain as unknown to me as any other person I've never met.
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