Have you ever tried to spell out an email address to someone? Over the phone? It’s not as simple as you may think!
Today, I found a house for rent and after negotiating with the lessor over the phone, she decided to give me her email address. She spelt it once and then I tried to confirm its correct spelling.
“Okay, let me double check to see I have this right.”
“Alright.”
“It’s ‘g’, like ‘goat’…”
“Yes.”
“‘P’ like ‘pig’…”
“Yes.”
“‘E’ like ‘elephant’…”
“Uh huh.”
“‘A’ like ‘aardvark’…”
“Yep.”
“And the letter ‘r’ like… um… like ‘rastafari‘?”
“…”
“And then the numbers 7-2-7-6-5 at AOL dot com?”
“Yeah, that’s right. What did you say for the letter ‘r’ again?”
“Um. ‘Rastafari?'”
“…I don’t even know what that is.”
“Actually, I don’t either,” I lied.
“Wow.”
“Yeah, I’m sorry about that.”
“It’s okay.”
“Alright, so I’ll email you.”
“Okay, you do that.”
Rastafari?! RASTAFARI?! How about “rabbit” or “rhinoceros?” “Rattlesnake?” “Reindeer?” “Raccoon?!”
Nope. I said “rastafari.”
Brilliant, really.
