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Long-Lost Texts Arrive

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Waiting for a text message from a lost love or word you've been nominated for an Oscar? Well, maybe it's not too late. Almost 170,000 text messages from last Valentine's Day, February 14, just finally arrived this past Thursday night because of a server issue - they call it an internal maintenance cycle - at Syniverse, a company that helps deliver texts for major U.S. carriers.

Marissa Figueroa of Turlock, Calif., got a text from an ex she doesn't talk to anymore. It just was not good for me and my mental health, she said.

I like to think the text message sent to me I never saw was from the people who give MacArthur Genius Grants. Let me check now.

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Scott Simon is one of America's most admired writers and broadcasters. He is the host of Weekend Edition Saturday and is one of the hosts of NPR's morning news podcast Up First. He has reported from all fifty states, five continents, and ten wars, from El Salvador to Sarajevo to Afghanistan and Iraq. His books have chronicled character and characters, in war and peace, sports and art, tragedy and comedy.