Over my long on-line years I have encountered many personal examples of mis-tells, those cases when you accidentally send an instant message to the wrong person. Most of the time they resulty in a moment of confusion and nothing more. Occasionally they are embarassing, as when you send a message saying "I'm chatting with some jerk" to the jerk in question. The most embarassing has to be when you send something rather personal to someone who shouldn't know quite so much about your personal life. Occasionally, though, they are just funny because they are so far out of context.

A case in point from this week. I received a text message on my phone the other night, which is rare enough for me, being an old geezer. The body of the message, though, threw me.

If u see a big fat man puttin u in a bag d0nt be scared i t0ld santa i wanted u 4 christmas

Leaving aside the fact that if a big fat man tried to put me in a bag I would simply assume I'd wandered into the wrong bar again, I was puzzled by this message. The phone number looked vaguely familiar, but wasn't named in my phone, and I certainly don't know anyone who would waste a letter to Santa on me.

Checking my Palm I discovered to my amusement that it came from one of the women who work for me. Sensing a mis-tell, I replied with a simple "is that so?" Her confusion answered my question, and when I responded with a mention of "last night's message," her embarassment was obvious, even through text messaging.

So all you texters and chatters, if your paramour has a common name, make sure you are pitching woo at the right person, okay? My fragile ego can't handle too much more disappointment.