Friend Request

Ah, the internet age.

My wife and I were across the street, talking to a neighbor ("Wax-Man"). He's a nice fellow, but all the times we've ever talked to him we've learned nothing about him except that he likes to wax his cars.

Then he mentioned having a Facebook account.

"Really?", we perked up. "What's your last name? We'll 'friend' you!"

Wax-Man's Facebook wall was a bit of a revelation. We found out his job, his college, his extended family, the mileage on his cars, his shoe size, his pizza phobia, his love of kabuki theater, he used to be a horse, and he's had a runny nose since 1989. He owns stock in Kleenex. He owns a pair of Jimmy Carter's underwear. He holds a patent on the word Zberfimax, and is patiently waiting for a pharmaceutical company to come along and make him rich.

He's comfortable telling the internet these things, but not his neighbors. At least, not verbally. Verbal communication is dead.

In fact, in less than a week of being Facebook friends, we've had more conversations with him than we have in the past two years.

By the way, if any of you are interested in using "Zberfimax Pro" as a product name, let me know. I hold a patent on it now.