Yesterday I got an email, an email addressed to almost 100 people, most of whom shared the same last name, which is not mine. My name/address were buried in the middle of the recipient list. The email was a sad announcement of the death of the sender's 100-year-old grandmother in Michigan. The sender's address was at an ISP in Portland, Oregon. I live on the East Coast. A fair amount of the addressees are at Swiss email addresses.
This does not seem like a hoax. A google search reveals the deceased's name in a genealogy web site with the proper birth date.
Today I got a follow-up mail. The funeral will be Saturday ...
Now the problem: I have no idea who the deceased was, who the sender or any of the other recipients are, and how and why I got on this list. Unless the reason was to create a novel idea for a comic contest.
The rules are simple: Come up with an explanation behind this turn of events, or a story related to some aspect of it. And be quick. Since I was recently on the Hot Seat, I only plan to stay on it until Friday night, when I will name its next occupant.
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ken.kaufman@gmail.com
