It's hard to understand some people

Steve Schwartzman

Mar 29

So there we were on March 25th heading south from Christ Lutheran Church on the appropriately named Church Rd. in Guadalupe County south of New Berlin. When I saw a colorful stand of mixed wildflowers in a fenced front yard I parked, walked over to the fence, and prepared to take pictures. No sooner had I raised my camera when a guy in a tractor started spiraling in around the edges of the yard to mow down all the pretty wildflowers. I yelled out to ask him why he was doing that; he said his wife insisted, and he had to do what she wanted. How anyone could prefer a bare yard to this wildflower delight is beyond me, but I recognize the reality that people's values vary immensely. The cut-down wildflowers included Indian paintbrush (Castilleja indivisa), sandyland bluebonnet (Lupinus subcarnosus), phlox (Phlox drummondii), and Texas groundsel (Senecio ampullaceus).

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When my phone rings, I don't pick up for people/numbers I don't recognize on the caller ID. Instead I let the call go through to my answering machine to see if someone leaves a legitimate message. Yesterday I got an unrecognized call, and here's the message a robotic voice left (often bunching phrases unnaturally):

"Hi, my name is Deborah Holland from the PCH Sweepstakes calling to notify you that you are a lucky winner of $12.5 million, $7000 weekly for life and a beautiful 2023 C-Class Mercedes Benz in our monthly grand prize drawing. We want to say congratulations. Your claim ID number is 5974PCH. You are the newest winner. Our agents are on hand to greet you with flowers and balloons. To claim your prize, please call the company at 315-804-8952... We'd like to take time out to congratulate you once more. Have yourself a blessed day."

Well, needless to say, I didn't call back to be greeted with flowers and balloons. I've been greeted with more than enough flowers lately, as you've been seeing here, and I don't need any balloons. I am sorry to lose the millions and the Mercedes, though.

You have to wonder how anybody could ever take a robotic message like that seriously. At the same time, scammers wouldn't be doing what they do if there weren't at least some gullible people out there. It's an unfortunate truth of human nature that no matter how implausible a claim is, there's always somebody who'll believe it.