Gang members think someone who owes them money lives at our house. They are wrong and we told them so twice. Then they came back at night and threw a brick through our window. We immediately went to a hotel and have already signed a rental agreement elsewhere. However, I am scared to go pack up the house. Is that rational, and if so, what recourse do we have? [more inside]
posted by anonymous on Nov 27, 2012 - 25 answers

I've been using Gmail for several years as my primary email address and have an address that has no numbers tacked on to the end. Over time, more and more people are giving out my email address instead of their own. I'm sure they're doing this mistakenly and not maliciously, but so many websites don't have email verification set up that it's getting really irritating to get, for example, Louisiana Republican mailings when I'm a Canadian citizen. It can often take days or weeks for the unsubscribe to kick in (these 10-21 day unsubscribe policies are ridiculous, but they're out there). Often, people (as opposed to organizations/companies) will also email me, thinking that I'm their friend, because they forgot a number or something at the end of their friend's email address or some such thing. This is equally annoying, but at least all it (usually) takes is a quick email saying "hey, check with your friend because this isn't their email address, thanks". But that's still somewhat irritating. I do not want to give up my current Gmail address. What can I do to cope with all this? [more inside]
posted by juliebug on Aug 7, 2012 - 28 answers

I'm doing some research--you can help by listing all stories (fiction or non-fiction, written or filmed) which are either based on the template of Cyrano de Bergerac (ie, one character using another to woo their love interest) or a mistaken identity/false identity (ie, someone is mistaken for or pretending to be someone or something they are not in order to get something denied their true self). [more inside]
posted by dobbs on Sep 10, 2007 - 30 answers