Never could I have dreamed that campaign canvassing this past Sunday would resolve the mystery of, and my obsession with, "Heartless Bastard."
"Heartless Bastard," is the ID of a regular opponent I play on #Words With Friends, a digital format similar to #Scrabble that has connected me with players as far away as Australia. It's like winning the lottery when I defeat Heartless because odds against me winning are just so great. My 3-year win record against him is 22 to 291. My friends find it a source of amusement that I am so determined to beat him.
It's not that I am such a terrible player; our games are often very close. It is just that he is so darn good. I guess he continues to play me to live up to his name, and by now he knows I am a glutton for his punishment.
I've imagined Heartless to be a retired professor or a rocket scientist who wore one of those worn sweaters with elbow patches. Someone who sat next to one of those foot-wide Oxford dictionaries just looking for new ammunition. His arsenal includes names of foreign coins, scientific terms and exotic birds and creatures from some place I never even knew existed.
We converse on the WWF chat feature only rarely, but in recent months we texted more since I had to tell him I would be playing less to campaign for Florida Senate Dist. 4. Imagine my shock after he asked me who I was running against, and he replied he attended Jacksonville University with my opponent, who is 51. So that changed my mental picture of Heartless, though I still did not have much to go on for a new mental image.
Well, it turns out that during the canvass Sunday, two of my good friends who are well aware of my fascination and frustrations with Heartless Bastard actually knocked on his door. When this tall, "super gorgeous guy" (their description) opened the door and he listened to the pitch about what I good candidate I am, he said he knew all about me because we played #Words With Friends. "You must be "Heartless Bastard" one of my friends said, to his shock, amusement and confession.
Heartless was kind enough to let them take a picture that shows he is much different than I ever imagined. Not only that, he IS a Democrat. He, like me, and another great Democrat, "relax" by playing the game. That other Democrat is #Barack Obama.
And it turns Heartless and I are practically neighbors.
I asked his permission to post this story and he approved, saying "Hopefully, the post helps your campaign." He also corrected my win/loss stats, which are pretty embarrassing on my part, adding "I am looking to improve upon that. :)" I wrote him back suggesting he change his name to Ruthless Bastard.
Hey, all you #Words With Friends soul mates, how about kicking in a small donation (or a big one) to my campaign so I don't have to work so hard raising money in this final stretch to turn the Florida Senate Blue. You can do it on-line, Billee4FLSenate4.com/donate.