People Don't Always Suck

Reading Ethan Zuckerman's recap of the awful things people said to Xeni Jardin during a recent "twttier bomb" fiasco, it would be very easy to slide into "People suck" mode. Particularly since a large part of my day yesterday was spent in New York traffic. So here's a quick antidote, also from yesterday:

When I got back here yesterday evening, after driving 500-ish miles in the last two days, and not getting a whole lot of sleep, I was pretty fried. So much so that on the way to pick the kids up from day care, I lost my phone. Apparently, I put it on top of the car when I got in, and it fell off when I made the turn into the JCC.

How do I know this? Because a total stranger spotted it lying on the double yellow line on a fairly major street, while he was on his way to a lacrosse practice, and stopped to pick it up. He wasn't exactly tech-savvy, but did figure out my email address, which he passed on to his son, who sent me a note. He also called the last couple of people on my recent calls list, to track me down (to the amusement of my parents, as my mother was one of those). I called him as soon as I got the email, and he stopped by the house to return the phone. Which is fine, other than some scuffing of the rugged case.

So, you know, while a certain subset of people on the Internet certainly do suck, it's good to be reminded that there are a lot of good people out there, too. Thanks to one of them, I don't have to spend the day getting a new phone.