Hello, Stranger!

Faithful Life On The Beach readers (all 3 of you, including me) will recall that I recently joined Facebook, and found it to be a fascinating way to find people. I am now discovering that not only can I find people , they can also find me. I received an email today from Facebook, advising me that a Ms. Mandy Strasik (This is her Facebook photo to the right) was requesting to be made one of my online "friends". Now, I've never met Ms. Mandy Strasik, but I am a friendly sort, and I'm always telling my boys that they can never make too many friends in life, so I went ahead and made Mandy Strasik my official friend... although I'm pretty sure we're still a bit young in our budding friendship to go out and pick furniture or anything like that.

Now I must confess - although I have never met Ms. Mandy Strasik, I had a strong suspicion she was THE Mandy from Chez Copa - a.k.a. the women who party and sometimes cohabit with my young former associate Jennifer T. (Don't call me Jenny) Richer, who works at WMAL. A few clicks of the keyboard did confirm this to be the case. I am, in fact, delighted at my age, married with two kids, to be able to be part of any club made up almost entirely of attractive 20-something women. Just don't wake me up from this dream!

However, this situation does beg one question of Facebook etiquette that puzzles me. If I am going to receive unsolicited requests for friendship, am I bound by 21st Century mores to accept them all? I mean, how insulting would it be to say "no" to someone requesting an online friendship? I know in the short time I've been perusing Facebook, I have run across people from my past who I want to remain in my past... but there's no assurance they are not going to seek ME out to be friends. Is there such a thing as a "Facebook Witness Protection Program"? Maybe there should be! In the meantime, Mandy... let's do lunch!