NOTHING?

Shakespeare wrote a farce called  Much Ado About Nothing,  but it was everything but. The play is riddled with puns, plays on words and double-entendres, all related to "nothing" and "noting."  James Joyce would have been proud to call it his inspiration for "Finnegan's Wake."

Today I listened to a podcast from "Radio Lab" that gave another twist to "nothing."

A California resident applied to the Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA) to have his last name on a vanity plate. Soon after, he started to get traffic ticket summonses for vehicle violations all over the state and for cars that did not belong to him. 

A little later, he got 30,000 "undeliverable" notices from the Post Office.

His name was Chris Null and may have been the only California resident who wanted his last name (NULL) stamped into his license plate. 

The word "null" is often used by computer programmers to signify either "nothing" or "absence of information."

He called some Government offices to find out why he was getting this weird mail.  Here is my "take" on what may have occurred.

Computer: "May I help you?"

Chris:  "Yes, I have a problem."

Computer:  "OK, may I have your last name?"

Chris: "Null."

Computer:  "May I have your last name, please?"

Chris"  "Null!"

Computer:  "I cannot process your request without a last name."

Chris: "Dammit, transfer me to a human!"

Computer:  "I cannot make transfers without a last name!"

Chris:  "Go to hell!"

Now this scenario may not be far from the truth, because of a computer programming error.

Should have said "IF LAST NAME IS "NULL" GO TO Chris' address. and

IF LAST NAME IS NULL APPLY DETECTION APPS

Instead it said:  "IF LAST NAME IS NULL GO TO Chris' address. 

If a police officer forgot to add the violator's last name to a ticket, that would cause null (nothing) to be shown where last name should be.

If a letter is "undeliverable" the last name is not shown and therefore they all would get sent to Chris.

Chris is a computer expert and showed the programmers their error, the tons of misdirected mail ceased and he got his NULL license tags. 

I have several Maryland friends whose last names are "Null."

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