Wayne Smith

I got a call from my credit card company this morning with an exciting new offer to protect my identity from theft. It won't surprise you when I tell you that the gentleman who talked with me had a rather pronounced Indian accent. I assume he was in fact sitting somewhere in India in a call center when we conversed. The best part, though, was that he told me his name: Wayne Smith.

"My name is Wayne Smith," he said. He repeated it a couple of times so I'd be sure to catch it. The second time, he said it fast, so it was like one word: "WayneSmith."

Why, he was just an ordinary guy like me, Joe Sixpack himself.You could trust him, a guy named Wayne Smith. Listened to Lee Greenwood a lot, no doubt. And calling little ol' me up with real concern about my identity being safe. Made me feel really bad to tell him I wasn't interested and hang up.

But it did get me thinking about the many employees of my credit card company, who I can just picture:

Wayne Smith

Wayne's brother Carl

Nguyen Bao

Magnús Guðjmansson


Kalepo Malielegaoi

And of course:

Or,
The Artist Formerly Known as Madonna

Makes me think they have a little bit of trouble with identity, themselves.