You’ve been CCed

WARNING: This content is not recommended for anyone who suffers from coulrophobia (fear of clowns).

When email first became popular, I quickly learned the meaning behind ‘CC.’ Contrary to popular belief, ‘CC’ does not stand for ‘Carbon Copy.’ Nope. It stands for ‘Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs,’  C-Crazy. More often than not, ‘CC’ is used to let the ‘To’ of the email know that the ‘From’ has told on them. Why couldn’t the “CCed’ person just have been included in the ‘To’? Because that would be a form of direct communication, that’s why. Why be direct when one can be crazy? Start watching the ‘CCs’ on your email – you’ll find this to be very true.

Several months ago I was putting together a CC free email about current events when I stumbled upon a headline that wreaked of CC, “Man dresses as clown, violates protective order.” This made my day and as I continued to read, my day got better, “…allegedly violated a protective order by showing up at a woman’s house dressed as a clown (wearing face paint….and carrying a large red and white umbrella) and leaving some banana bread at her door.”

Banana bread? This guy is a clown! Everybody knows clowns bring pies. I shared this story with Sleepless who, like me, was smitten with this little bit of crazy. For a while, she started leaving banana bread on my door – until one day it went missing, but I digress. Due to the clown’s behavior, he has been spending quite a bit of time in a new kind of circus: the courtroom. As a result, his clowning around has increased and the documents he submits to the court (thankfully, public record), have provided us great reading entertainment.

In his most recent document – which he managed to CC to many, despite the fact that it was handwritten on ruled paper (he did opt for legal size formatting) – he advises the court, “I decline to discuss the funny business regarding the clown and banana bread in this document.” “I’m telling you,” Sleepless told me, “It just keeps getting crazier.” I shared my CC theory with her and told her we should have a nickname for this guy, “Perhaps Clusterfuck the Clown, CC for short.” “I like it. Very fitting,” she replied.

We could also refer to him as ‘Ccoulro,’ with the second ‘c’ being silent. ‘Coulro’ is believed to be derived from ancient Greek and means ‘stilt walker.’ This is perfect for another one of CC’s hobbies. In addition to banana bread (‘nuts’ clearly not optional in this case) delivery, CC likes to do a thing he calls, “walking by, hello-ing.” Not sure if he is on stilts when doing this, but the court considers this act stalking.

Anyway, I best be going. I’ve got banana bread to make; walking by, hello-ing to do; and email to send. Don’t worry, I’ll keep you in the loop, I’ll CC you.