If you can't say something nice about someone, don't say anything at all.
At no time was that old advice more pertinent than in this age of instant communication.
Not once, but twice in the past couple of months I have inadvertently sent an e-mail to the wrong person. I rely too much on the auto-complete function of my mail program, and certain keyboard shortcuts, and don't always double-check.
In both cases, the unintended recipient was our daughter's mother-in-law; as near as I can figure out, some common typo for one of my other correspondents must auto-complete to her address. The first e-mail would simply have confused her, but the second could have been a disaster, as I had written quite a bit about her and her family in an e-mail that was supposed to go to my sister.
Fortunately, I only said good things -- she's the kind of person about whom it's hard to find something bad to say. But I can think of contexts in which I could have gotten myself in very hot water indeed.
When our kids were little, we had a record of children's songs (yes, vinyl -- I'm that old), one of which had verses that began, "Be careful, little eyes, what you see," "Be careful, little ears, what you hear," and "Be careful, little hands, what you do."
Be careful, little fingers, what you type.
