Do people still abuse copy machines? Taking liberties with that “privilege” was always a big deal in the office building where my mom worked when I was a kid.

I’d stop there every day after school on my way home, and sometimes for a laugh the copy room manager and me would press our ... faces ... against the scanner and pass around a few dozen copies with funny messages like “How about some ham with your eggs?”

People always got a kick out of that. Me most of all. Partly because I was 10 and went to Catholic school and until then was afraid to think unholy thoughts because I was certain nuns could read and control my mind. But mostly because there was something exciting, ingenious and unexplainably innocent about being able to give someone the finger on a piece of paper without actually flipping them the bird.

Technology changed my life.

So much so that I haven’t caught up to the new stuff we’ve invented. I’m still floored by the idea that people’s voices can travel instantly across time and space in tiny wires.