Text Free

I enjoy a good practical joke. I was introduced to Text Free by a family friend Harrison L. (too young to be a Louper!) who has used it to great comedic effect. The idea is that you can get a “Burner” number from which to text people. This "other" number, of course, can also be useful for people you don't want to have your real number (hmmm ... that Vegas Showgirl, that guy that asked for your number at the bar, the odd cable guy, the overly persistent salesperson). However, it is also perfect for pranking people by sending texts whereby they won't recognize who the text is actually from. I recently had the opportunity to prank my 15-year-old daughter at Visiting Day. She was desperately using my wife’s phone seeing as she has been phoneless for four weeks, an effective eternity! So I sent my wife a TextFree saying, “Ditch your husband and kids, meet me behind the dining hall... I need to be with you! xxoo” The message popped up as an alert, and she was desperately trying to get it back up. She read it and poked around, and really didn't know what to do. I was watching her from behind, freaking out! I quickly disclosed who had sent the text, and we had a tremendous and long laugh! Evil? Maybe! Funny? Of course! By the way, you can only do this to people who can handle it. An age-old rule in comedy, know your audience!