On Facebook:

1) I recently (not that recently, I suppose, now that it has been almost a month) had my second successful "Facebook Fakeout Birthday," on August 6. What makes it especially amusing is that I received 37 wall posts about it this time around (only three less than the inaugural bash), with only a handful of those being sarcastic or trying to blow my spot. My former history T.A., who knows the significance of the date I chose to fake people out with, August 6, 1945, simply wrote, "and hiroshima goes boom." And I had a couple of cousins, once again, enthusiastically wish me a happy birthday.

I also had one girl from New York, who fell for it hard last year, when I turned 62, take the time to write me a personal email in congratulations of the big day, since my Wall was cluttered with "screaming Bayless fans," and she wanted to show that she really cared. In her email she wrote, "You are probably also getting a lot of shit for crying wolf back in November or whenever that was that you faked your facebook birthday. So I'll stear clear of that."

It's called out-thinking yourself. And it makes me smile to know that I got her twice now.

2) I finally got to ask the question that has been bugging me for some time now: What icon shows up for people who break off engagements when this news becomes public on the News Feed?

I've been interested in the business of bad news icons for some time. But I caught a boon when my cousin broke off her engagement last summer, right before I left for Tanzania. Her engagement party was promptly converted into my going away party. Now that it's been over a year, and she's more than over it, I finally got to ask her: "Was there an icon of a broken ring next to your name when you broke off your engagement?"

She didn't check to see, was her response.

Great. The wait continues.


*Now that I see that they no longer do broken hearts, but rather entire, intact hearts for break ups, I guarantee my dream of hearing "Yes" to that question will never be fulfilled.