Productive use of email (?)

I just heard a song on the radio that reminded me of the year I spent in Geneva my junior year in college exactly ten years ago (* gasp *). How could I forget the familiar lines we used to listen to all the time.. “I’m the lyrical gangster, excuse me mister officer.” (from Here Comes the Hotstepper by Ini Kamoze) Oh, the days…

I decided to email the group of friends with whom I spent that marvelous year. Within minutes I received a couple of responses with the full lyrics and someone even offering to bring the song to our upcoming reunion. These friends were also “thanking me” for getting the song into their heads to the extent that they can’t stop singing it now. I find it amusing to imagine these friends sitting in their offices across the globe, from the State Department to grad student carrels, from embassies to law offices singing “naa-nanananaa-nanananaa-nananaa-nanana”.

Thanks to email, the dissemination of that important little phrase took only a few minutes!

2 Responses to “Productive use of email (?)”

  1. LiL Says:

    hee, I love that song too – and haven’t thought of it in many a year!

  2. J. Ellenberg Says:

    Now I’m singing it too, and I have office hours in thirty minutes. Is it appropriate for me to burst out in “Here comes the hotstepper” in front of the undergraduates?

    (Answer: It is always appropriate to burst out in “Here comes the hotstepper.”)