Message In A Bottle Received, Responded To, 24 Years Later

“My name is Frank and I’m five years old. My dad and I are traveling on a ship to Denmark. If you find this letter, please write back to me, and I will write back to you.”
 — Frank Uesbeck, of Coesfeld, Germany, contributed to the pollution of the Baltic Sea 24 years ago by sealing a note in a brown glass bottle and throwing it off a boat. Now 29, and apparently unrepentant, he is being rewarded with press coverage. Because 13-year-old Daniil Korotkikh found the bottle on a beach on the Russian coast and reporters helped him contact Uesbeck over the Internet. Actually, this story from last week is heart-warming, and a little jealousy-making, for anyone who ever did this sort of thing when they were little. Which is everyone, right? The video above, of the Police playing a concert in Germany six years before Uesbeck hurt our planet, makes me want to write a letter to Stewart Copeland, telling him that his phenomenal drumming was always the best thing about that band.