I have a glaringly Irish and rather generic first and last name combination. As such, I’m often on the receiving end of electronic correspondence that is intended for some other Shamrock McWhiskey who wasn’t quick enough in snagging Shamrock McWhiskey at gmail dot com (or maybe she has Shamrock McWhisky (no “e”) or some other variation thereof and the people sending the messages are bad enough friends to not know how to spell poor Shamrock’s last name correctly). Anyhow. My inbox gets a lot of non-spam action from strangers who I presume to be the other Shamrock’s friends.

Though a disbeliever in fate and other magical, romanticized concepts, I often find myself mystified and smiling sillily at odd coincidences and the like. One of these odd coincidence-like things occurred last summer when I received one of Shamrock McWhisky’s emails. A man named Kyle (who I imagine to have been spellbound by Shamrock’s beauty and brains and the victim of unrequited love) sent a list of songs for Shamrock to acquire and listen to. This very Rob Gordon-esque thing is the thing of all things that I dream some adorable and well-meaning man will do for me someday. But, alas, I’m left to live vicariously through Shamrock McWhisky and my inbox fails to see such marvelous things as intended for me. The subject of Kyle’s email, “You can change any habit that you want changed.” spoke volumes to me at the time (hence why I classify the receipt of this message as an odd and wonderful coincidence-like thing). This well-known ditty by Elliott Smith was tucked among the list of songs for Shamrock to enjoy along with the following notation: “I know you know, just wanted you to know that I know.” Thanks, Kyle. I don’t know but I hope to soon.