Paying it forward, or actually, backward

The Web, the waves, the world--they're all full of bad news. It's kind of hard to visit a website or turn on the news without encountering some terrible event or tragic story. So, today, I add to the world a human interest story that, on a small scale, touched both my world and my heart.

The setting? The drive-thru window at Starbucks. The players? Well, J., for one and the others are unknown. That's the beauty of this.

J. went to get the seriously decaffeinated in our home (namely, he and I) some powerfully strong coffee. He came home with Starbucks, a great big smile and his wallet no less full than when he left the house. At first I thought it had a situation of someone getting the order wrong and then comping it. But, no...

There were 4 cars in line. J. was last. The first car apparently ordered a bucketload of coffee and managed to hold up the line for awhile. When J. got to the window the barista met him with a great big smile and a tale of paying it forward. Well, backward. The first guy in line paid for the car behind him. The car behind him then decided to pay for the car behind him who then decided to pay for J.'s order. What an awesome chain reaction!

Unfortunately, there was nobody behind J. to whom he could pass on the joy. We'll just have to do something random and kind some other time.

If you want to pay it forward, click on the hyperlink to find a way to do it!

Beware of West Africa House for Rent Scam

Just a quick note to all of you out there who are looking for a home to rent. We found a great ad on our local Craigslist for a house to rent. It seemed a little too good to be true, but we decided to send an email back just in case. Well, let me tell you, when I got an email back from the "landlord" the hairs on the back of my neck stood at attention. Wouldn't yours? Here's what this upstanding citizen had to say (and, in fact, sent as a reply TWICE):

hello ,
Thanks for the email. I sherry williams Matthew own of the3 bedroom apartment . and also want you to know that it was due to my transfer that makes me and my wife to leave the house. and also want to give it out for rent and looking for a responsible person that can take very good care of it .the person that will rent it to take it as if it were its own. So for now, We are here in west Africa, our new house and also with the keys of the house, we try to look for an agent that we can give this documents.I and my wife came over to West Africa for a missionary work, so i hope you will promise us to take very good care of the house. So get back to me on .how you could take care of our house or perhaps experience you have in renting home. Hope you are okay with the price of US$700(4 months first payment) with hydro,heat laundry facilities, air condition and so on. I am looking forward to hear from you . so that talk about the application. to fill out and discuss on how to get the house for rent,my number +2348029442013 you can call me ,this the address of the apertment ___________Street, Bangor ME 04401 back to me immediately ,
thanks God bless

After a quick Google search, I found that this is pretty common right now. I actually found that someone else had posted the EXACT same response email as a warning! So, renter beware. If they won't meet with you, ask for lots of money up front and aren't real good with the English-- c'mon, missionaries speak pretty well, don't they?--please don't fall for it. Report to the abuse at Craiglist email.

As I was writing this, I received an email back from Craigslist--listing has been removed. Power to the the observant people!

Related Features

The above article features related content.