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Their thumbs sure have to be sore.

Two central Pennsylvania friends spent most of March in a text-messaging record attempt, exchanging a thumbs-flying total of 217,000.

For one of the two, that meant an inches-thick itemized bill for $26,000.

Nick Andes, 29, and Doug Klinger, 30, were relying on their unlimited text messaging plans to get them through the escapade, so Andes didn't expect such a big bill. “It came in a box that cost $27.55 to send to me,” he said Tuesday. He said he “panicked” and called T-Mobile, which told The Associated Press it had credited his account and was investigating the charges.

The two Lancaster-area residents have been practically nonstop texters for about a decade since they attended Berks Technical Institute together. That led Andes to search for the largest monthly text message total he could find posted online: 182,000 sent in 2005 by Deepak Sharma in India.

Andes and Klinger were able to set up their phones to send multiple messages. During a February test run they found they could send 6,000 or 7,000 messages on some days, prompting the March messaging marathon. “Most were either short phrases or one word, ‘LOL’ or ‘Hello,’ things like that, with tons and tons of repeats,” said Andes, reached by phone.

Andes sent more than 140,000 messages, and Klinger sent more than 70,000 to end the month with a total of just over 217,000, he said.

A spokesman for Guinness World Records didn’t immediately return messages asking whether it would be certified as a record.

This story leads me to ask a simple question: Don’t they have jobs? Or, maybe one more question: You mean their wives tolerated these two guys texting all the time?

I don’t know about you, but I find it difficult to keep up with emails and Facebook messages, much less sending and receiving 1,000s of text messages. Then again, and this will show my age I suppose, I don’t do text messaging. I just don’t see the point in it. I’d rather talk to the person on the phone or even email. Why send a note over your cell phone? If is really necessary to text them “hello?” Is that necessary? Or, how about “U OK”. Sorry. I just don’t see it.

What about you? Big texter? What am I missing? And, in a month’s time, what’s the most texts you have sent? Be honest!

Pennies From Heaven

A Pennsylvania man says he considered it divine providence when a bank error put more than $175,000 in his and his wife’s account. Fifty-year-old Randy Pratt and 36-year-old Melissa Pratt face trial in Columbia County Court on felony theft and conspiracy charges. They waived a preliminary hearing Wednesday.

The trouble started when a $1,772.50 deposit to the Pratts’ FNB Bank account showed up as $177,250 last summer. Police say that instead of telling the bank, they withdrew the money, quit their jobs and moved to Florida.

Randy Pratt tells the Bloomsburg Press Enterprise he did attempt to ask the bank what happened, but was ignored. He said he considered the money “a gift from God.” He says the couple gave away thousands of dollars, including $25,000 to a Florida church shelter for the homeless.

Randy Pratt is in county prison. A judge denied a request to lower his $100,000 bail. Melissa Pratt, who told the court she is estranged from her husband, is free on unsecured bail.

What do you think? “A gift from God” or an easy excuse for his crime?

I don’t believe I’ve ever had a banking error. And, if it had been a $175,000 error, I think I would have noticed. And, I doubt the bank would have ignored me.

Sounds to me like the Pratts were just a little greedy!

Pistol Packing Momma

A Harrisburg Pennsylvania woman has sued a sheriff for revoking her concealed-weapons permit after she upset fellow parents by wearing her holstered pistol to her 5-year-old daughter’s soccer game.

Now, is there any reason to wonder why parents don’t want to volunteer to coach or officiate at these kinds of games? Parents now toting guns! Let’s see, I bet the calls go favorably for Mrs. Hain’s daughter! Or else!

Meleanie Hain now alleges in her federal lawsuit that Lebanon County Sheriff Michael DeLeo violated her Second Amendment rights and prosecuted her maliciously when he took away her permit in September.

Mrs. Hain, 30, successfully appealed the revocation last month, although the judge who restored her permit questioned her judgment and said she “scared the devil” out of others who attended the September 11 soccer game. You know, I know what the judge meant. But, he needs to rethink some of his theology, if he believes his statement is true! If only that’s all it took to scare the devil out of people!

Mrs. Hain said last Monday that her baby-sitting service has suffered, her children have been harassed, and she has been ostracized by her neighbors because of DeLeo’s actions. In one instance, she said, a neighbor who saw her in a local store had the manager ask her to leave because she was carrying her handgun.

Did you read that? This woman runs a baby-sitting service? Well, at least they should be safe and well protected as long as she is “packing heat,” unless one of the children accidently got their hands on her gun!

Mrs. Hain is being joined in the lawsuit by her husband, Scott, who contends he has lost his wife’s “companionship, consortium, society, and services” as a result of the harm she has suffered. “Consortium, society, and services”? Is that just a nice legal way of saying “sex”?

So, for the question of the day, should a parent be allowed to wear a holstered gun to soccer games, community events, school functions?

Why? Why not?

Everybody Has an Opinion

Let’s file this one under the category of: I’d Like to Know Your Opinion.

I’ll do my best from sharing my opinion, at least right away. But, read the following news story and tell me your thoughts.

The story comes from Pittsburg, PA. (Bill, your favorite town.) Pittsburg City police wrote nearly 200 disorderly conduct citations over a 32-month period for swearing, obscene gestures, and other acts deemed disrespectful.

After filing a Right to Know request, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) found 188 such citations. “Nobody likes to get sworn at, but you can’t make it a crime,” said Witold Walczak, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Foundation of Pennsylvania.

The ACLU’s request came in connection with a federal lawsuit involving David Hackbart, who was cited after allegedly making an obscene gesture at another driver, and then at a police sergeant. In a recent court filing, the city said the citation was not for Hackbart’s gestures, but because he was blocking traffic.

Walczak told The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the city had initially claimed it had only one disorderly conduct citation involving rude remarks to police or other people over that period. Walczak said officers were wrong to cite a woman who said, “I’m a (expletive deleted) passenger,” during a traffic stop; a woman who was “swearing profanities to a companion in front of the Girl Scouts”; and a man who “engaged in loud noise, racial slurs, and pig remarks.”

Okay, there you go. You make the call. Where the police correct or out of hand? Is the ACLU taking this matter too far or to the logical conclusion?

Thoughts?