{"id":11729,"date":"2017-02-14T11:08:39","date_gmt":"2017-02-14T19:08:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/?p=11729"},"modified":"2017-02-14T11:13:39","modified_gmt":"2017-02-14T19:13:39","slug":"fake-news-my-dying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/2017\/02\/14\/fake-news-my-dying\/","title":{"rendered":"Fake News, My Dying"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A-Hyatt-at-Easel\"
\n<\/a><\/h6>\n
A photo from the working session in Crestline last year, alive and well then, and alive and well still.<\/h6>\n

Here’s a funny one. I recently got an email from a friend and earlier working colleague I’d not heard from in many years. We knew him from when we served with the Canada Institute of Linguistics (CanIL) in British Columbia, 1997 to 2001. He wrote with concerns for my health.<\/p>\n

But why? Here’s what he said:<\/p>\n

Hello Hyatt,<\/p>\n

Greetings from your old haunt in Canada. It’s been so long. As I walk around the building here your numerous paintings remind me of our times together.<\/p>\n

I received word the other day that your health is not good and I wanted to inquire if it was true. Please, if you are able, let us know how you are doing and how we can pray for you.<\/p>\n

Danny<\/p>\n

_____<\/p>\n

If I’m able? What’s this?<\/p>\n

Here’s my reply (excerpted):<\/p>\n

Hi Danny,<\/p>\n

How great to hear from you. But I must say, along with Mark Twain, the rumors of my demise are greatly exaggerated! Even the story of my illness seems to be another example of fake news.<\/p>\n

That is, unless you\u2019re speaking prophetically and I should stock up on miscellaneous medicines just in case.<\/p>\n

But in fact, we\u2019re prospering. I would be interested to know of what you heard I\u2019m suffering, and who you heard it from.<\/p>\n

_____<\/p>\n

To this he replied:<\/p>\n

Hi Hyatt…<\/p>\n

I’m so glad to hear that you’re keeping well. About where I heard rumors of your poor health, I received the following from our communications department:<\/p>\n

Today I was updating our donor database to make the changes requested by our donors and I came across this bit of news.\u00a0 Hyatt Moore requested that we take him off our list, giving the unsubscribe reason as \u201cI\u2019m dying.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

And now you know why I wrote! I thought, “The poor guy is packing it in and I had better get my farewells in before it’s too late!”<\/p>\n

Keep up the good work and say hello to Anne!<\/p>\n

_____<\/p>\n

This explained it. Here’s my reply:<\/p>\n

Danny,<\/p>\n

Ha! \u00a0Now I know that somebody does read these things. I don\u2019t remember asking to be taken off the CanIL list specifically, but it\u2019s not unusual for me to do so, receiving so many mailings. These days it\u2019s easy to unsubscribe to lists, but not without explaining why. \u00a0So the \u201cI\u2019m dying\u201d has been my usual answer. Seems final enough . . . and there is some truth to it . . . just not eminent (I hope).<\/p>\n

In any case I genuinely do appreciate your concern, had it been real. There’s much yet to do before I\u2019m really dying.<\/p>\n

_____<\/p>\n

Then finally, his last response:<\/p>\n

Haha… You’re horrible!!! So you’re the originator of the “fake news”! Well thanks for a good laugh this morning.<\/p>\n

_____<\/p>\n

That’s it. Maybe it’ll give you a laugh too.<\/p>\n

Funny, though, how it does tie in with my blog subjects of late like Aging<\/em>, and Obits<\/em>. But we’re well, both of us, presently still\u00a0doing art and enjoying life in Crestline, California. (More on that next time.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s a funny one. At least I hope it’s funny.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11729"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11729"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11749,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11729\/revisions\/11749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}