04/20/24
October 29, 2018
SportsFilter: The Monday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
OK gang, I am in search of one SpoFite to occupy a seat at TD Garden on Thursday night. It's Celtics vs Bucks, featuring The Freekin' Greek (or is it the Greek Freak). This is particularly for you, yerfatma and beaverboard, since you both are within screaming distance of Boston, but if by chance any other SpoFites are in the area, it applies to you too. Let me know via email (my email address is in my profile) or find me on Facebook, where I use my real name, Howard Titus, and message me. Let me know soon either way if you can or cannot make it. My wife has some sort of appointment and my son prefers the company of his girlfriend, so the seat is empty.
posted by Howard_T at 04:36 PM on October 29, 2018
Real Madrid sack Julen Lopetegui as manager to the surprise of no one any where. Terminal dislike for RM but I feel sad for Lopetegui, who had his two dream jobs and lost both in the space of mere months.
posted by billsaysthis at 05:36 PM on October 29, 2018
OK gang, I am in search of one SpoFite to occupy a seat at TD Garden on Thursday night
Unfortunately, I will be on the West Coast for much of the week. Thanks though & some day!
posted by yerfatma at 08:47 PM on October 29, 2018
I wish I was up in Boston for gametime, Howard. I'm sure you have lots of great stories to share.
posted by NoMich at 09:58 PM on October 29, 2018
Such a wonderful offer Howard, but regrettably I'm not able to attend. I hope you are able to find someone who can go.
posted by beaverboard at 11:10 PM on October 29, 2018
It's a story that many people are interested in and want to read this story. For those who want to know this, hurry to read the web at all.
posted by Mawwan at 04:04 AM on October 30, 2018
I'm not sure if rcade already deleted this spammer's link, or if this spammer is just really, really bad at his/her job. Or maybe I was too late, and all of the people who were interested in reading the story beat me to it, and now it's all read out.
posted by tahoemoj at 12:29 PM on October 30, 2018
We just don't want to split the winnings with you.
posted by yerfatma at 01:12 PM on October 30, 2018
Speaking of spammers who are really bad at their jobs, do any of you ever get a call with a message about some line of credit or something, but in the message they just say to call back to the number you missed a call from? But the thing is, they do whatever they do so it goes straight to voicemail and there is no missed call. I used to get one of these a week, and I always just wondered what the scam is. I couldn't have called them back if I wanted to.
posted by bender at 02:21 PM on October 30, 2018
When spamming and telemarketing got started, it was before we had things like Caller ID so the callers had the upper hand. After the initial outrage at being bothered, I decided that they had called me for my personal entertainment, so I used the opportunity to concoct fake dialogues with them - if I felt like it. I'd tell them all kinds of things. I'm sure others here have done the same.
I put some reference material near the phone in case I wanted to use it. Things like the phone number for Pat Robertson's Prayer Line, etc. I did voice impressions, anything to keep them off balance to see what would happen. Living in the improv moment.
If they asked for my wife, I'd tell them she was deeply occupied. If they asked me if I was her husband, I'd say "Heavens no" and make them swear they'd never reveal to anyone that I was having an affair with her.
"Why is she letting you answer the phone?"
"Are you kidding? She can't talk to you right now. You would have no idea what she was saying. It sounds like a women's tennis match in there."
"If I had known how much fun I could have knocking on women's front doors with a vacuum cleaner in my hand, I would have gotten into this business years ago. Lemme tell you, it gets creative."
"Yeah, I'm a Scotchgard rep myself. I had to join the company. I was helping ruin way too many living room sofas. Something had to give."
"My conscience may not be clean, but the rug sure is."
And so on.
I thought I was getting fairly good at putting the callers on. Then I found out that I was a raw rookie and that there were other people out there who were much more major league at it than I ever was.
posted by beaverboard at 03:30 PM on October 30, 2018
I've been having some fun myself on the new frontier of craigslist. Had some scammer contact me about buying my motorcycle, and documented all of the text messages between us as screenshots (putting aside the very problematic fact that I didn't list my phone number in the listing). "She" wanted to buy my bike "as sign of appreciation for my son." He lives in Minneapolis (I'm in Reno). I talked up the bike, letting her know that I had just had the seat re-stuffed with chorizo and increased horsepower by 10% by adding snot rockets. I offered to ride the bike to Minnesota with her "while clutching her beautiful brown nipples as we glide across the country."
Didn't make the sale.
posted by tahoemoj at 04:38 PM on October 30, 2018
I want to see your motorcycle listing!
posted by NoMich at 04:42 PM on October 30, 2018
thanks for the afternoon laughs!
posted by billsaysthis at 04:58 PM on October 30, 2018
"Man, forget fantasy and forget Vegas." -- Todd Gurley