“Phone calling. It’s not just for Governors anymore.”

Maybe the governor is trying to set a good example for us all by giving up email and only using his cell phone. Maybe it's the wave of the future.

I think people rely way too much on email. It's tough in email to communicate complex ideas. Negotiate multifaceted deals. Have emotional blow-ups. Be sarcastic. You can't tell someone's 'tone' in an email. No matter how well you bold, capitilize, or ITALICIZE words. The problem, of course, is it's tough to do anything other than share the most basic information with emails. Short quick thoughts and ideas that people can read and say “Yay” or “Nay” to.

We taught my 81-year-old mother how to use email. She would email me and then immediately call me on my cell phone asking, “So, did you get my email?”

She'd email my Aunt Lilly, and then call her to see if she received the email. “Let me get off the phone and look,” Aunt Lilly would answer.

So, my Aunt Lilly would get off her phone, unplug her phone, hook up the computer modem to the phone line, go online with her very slow dial-up modem, go to AOL, get her email, and then see my mother’s email listed. Then she would just as dutifully, unhook the modem, re-connect the phone, and call my mother back.

“Hello, Pearl, this is Lilly, your sister,” she would say.

They have been sisters for 81 years, and they still identify each other by name and title when they call. The conversation would continue:

“So, did you get my email?”
“Yes, I did.”
“So, do you want to go?”
“Go where?”
“To play Mah Jong with Gertie? It’s in the email. Did you read the email?"
"Oh, I didn’t read the email. You just asked me if I got the email. I got the email."
“But you didn’t read the email?”
“No, I didn’t. What time did you want to go and play Mah Jong with Gertie?”
“ I don’t have time for this. That’s why I put it in the email. Go back and read the email."

So, Lilly goes back to read the email. She gets off the phone, unplugs the phone, hooks up the computer modem to the phone line, goes online with her very slow dial-up modem….

And it goes on and on like this. By the way, my mother and Aunt Lilly live just four doors down from each other.

Gotta love Florida. It’s like living in a Seinfeld episode.

Maybe Governor Corzine has the right idea:
“Phone calling. It’s not just for Governors anymore.”