Department of Great Minds Think Alike, and So Do Ours

Last night at 7:15 I received an e-mail from one Watson Kites whose contents were as follows (all punctuation, spelling, and capitalization, or lack thereof, per original):

"I just found your site.

"I play guitar in a rock band called stickfinger down in New Zealand.

"I doubt you will ever hear any references to us in the media.

"I just thought I should let you know that the name of our band was conceived independantly and is an obscure reference to the fact that both our guitars are steinbergers.

"Its a great name though. How do you conceive it?

"gotta Fly

"CW"

I wrote back:

"Greetings, Mr. Kites.

"What a wonderful last name you have! Has your band got a song called (after the tune off Sgt. Pepper's) 'For the Benefit of Mr. Kites'? If not, I think you should.

"My stickfinger is the English translation of the first two words of a Czech tongue-twister. The Czech tongue-twister is strc prst skrz krk (diacritical marks missing in this version, as I assume you won't have the font installed to read them). This means, literally, 'stick finger through throat.' For a long time, my e-mail address was strcprst@prodigy.net. I had to change because my English-speaking friends, lame-ass mofos that they are, said they "couldn't remember it." I say, what do you think address books are for?! Whatever.

"I am not of Czech heritage, in case you were wondering. But I did learn to speak Czech, through two years of grad school and five years living in Prague, and now, among other things, I translate Czech literature. My finest work so far, just in case you're interested, is a crazy-ass post-Velvet Revolution novel titled City Sister Silver. You can buy it on Amazon, if nowhere else. If you look at the links section on my blog, too, you will find reviews of the novel available online.

"I wish you and your band all the luck in the world.

"Alex Z."

"P.S. I will of course be posting your missive to me on my blog, minus your e-mail address. Hope you don't mind."