Predictive Text Kills

I use T9 predictive text when punching out text messages and it tends to get me in some trouble. Rather than clicking each digit multiple times to get the letter you want, you just hit them once and it does it's best to guess the word you spelled. Many times it works, but often it does not. The bad educator that I am, I don't often take the time to proofread my text messages back, so whatever word it assumed I was trying to say gets sent, meaning be damned. I get a lot of "Whats?" as response, and on more than one occasion, I've been told, "I can't understand your texts because they don't make any fucking sense."

That said, I've never accidentally killed anyone via text message, as Terri found herself the victim of recently.

It all started when Terri went to a comedy show at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Yes, it is a real cemetery, but since it's in Hollywood, it's also inevitably tacky, so they host a bunch of events there, too, like comedy shows and the sort. While at the show, Terri encountered a girl who she had met once through a mutual friend, Angel. This girl decided to share the coincidence with Angel in text message form, saying:

"I'm at the Hollywood Cemetery, that girl Terri is here."

Well, that's what she tried to say anyway. Thanks to a typo and a predictive text gone wrong, it came out as:

"I'm at the Hollywood Cemetery, that girl Terri is dead."

Naturally, Angel freaked out and called back immediately with concern. It is fairly amusing that he would believe this news since that would mean that not only had Terri died and no one shared this news with him, but now she was being buried in the most ostentatious cemetery in the country amongst deceased celebrities. That said, I can't fault Angel for his reaction, because it someone told you that your close friend had died, you probably wouldn't stop to reason through the situation.

Anyway, lesson learned: Mind your Ps and Qs! The letters might fall on the same number, but it could mean the difference between life and death.