Another mystery

Just when you (and I) thought this blog couldn't get any more "exciting", a new mystery begins to unfold! The seeds were planted about a month ago, when I began getting emails from someone I knew from college. He asked how I was doing, and told me a little about his job. In a second email, he congratulated me on being offered a job with Kaplan (suggesting that he had been reading this blog). Attached to this second email was "something to celebrate [my] newfound employment." It was a .pdf file, and it had been designed to resemble a New York City Transit Service Notice (look above).

I was impressed and very grateful to this guy for taking the time to make what I thought was a clever memento of my unemployment (at the time, it looked like Kaplan was a done deal). ["J. Lo," by the way, refers to me. It was a dumb nickname I had for about 5 seconds in college.]

Clearly, my friend had been reading the blog pretty thoroughly. The text of the poster makes direct reference to several post topics, and contains a direct quote.

Now to the mystery: I've been talking to this same friend via another medium, and when I recently thanked him for the sign that he made for me, he had no idea what I was talking about.

I was stunned. The email I got was clearly made out to look like it was from him. Not only was his (distinctive) name in the "To:" field, but the email also accurately described this guy's work situation and other things about him. I told the real guy about the emails that I had received and about the poster, and he was understandably freaked out.

Now, I'm not sure whether I'm the butt of this joke or if he is. Aside from one or two off-kilter moments in the emails, I felt like they were genuinely supportive. They certainly didn't feel malicious. Even looking at the poster after the fact, I still think it's funny and not at all condescending or cruel (unless you really take it literally). Aside from the falsified identity, there's nothing that would suggest that these notes are anything but benign.

But if someone wanted to send me an encouraging email, why would they co-opt someone else's identity? And why would he pick this particular guy to imitate? Now that the deception has been revealed, the real guy is worried that this identity theft (if that's what you'd call it) stretches beyond the couple of emails that I've received.

There's a very short list of people who could be behind this. It's got to be someone that both of us know and are friendly with--and there are really only half a dozen people that fit into that category. The real guy and I have narrowed it down to one prime suspect, but he denies any involvement. Nevertheless, I'm confident with the conclusion that we've reached.

On Tuesday morning, when I first realized that I'd been played for an idiot, I was furious. I was ready to cut off all ties with whoever was behind this stunt. I felt manipulated, and I was embarrassed that I'd been forwarding my own effusive responses to the real guy (who had never actually contacted me to begin with).

But I've cooled off now, and I can sort of see the humor in this gag (even if it is totally bizarre). I think it would be very decent of the perpetrator to step forward and fess up (especially if he's reading this). He need not fear reprisal.