Sometimes the person behind the little notification turns out to be an entire person.
The Riff. October 6, 2026
I read a story about a woman in Maryland who kept seeing the name “Mark” on her Domino’s pizza tracker. I can relate. I obsessively track food deliveries, mostly so I can argue with the air about the route they are taking. For years, Mark was making her order. She wasn’t entirely convinced Mark was real.
I understand that. We live in a world where a website can tell you a company values your time while making you identify nine motorcycles before you’re allowed to ask where your package is.
A little skepticism seems appropriate.
The pizza tracker is a fascinating invention. We used to order a pizza and wait. Now we can supervise its career. Preparation. Baking. Quality check. Delivery. By the time dinner arrives, we’ve followed it through more professional development than some of our relatives.
And somewhere in that process, there’s a name.
Mark.
Could be a person. Could be the pizza equivalent of the woman who tells you your call is very important while leaving you alone with a flute for forty minutes. Could be AI, but AI (*SI) rarely has complex names. Not saying Domino’s would name their AI “Ahmed,” but they have a checkered history with the “Noid.”
But this Mark was real. According to The MoCo Show, he had managed the Domino’s in Denton, Maryland, for fourteen years. The woman learned that when she saw a local tribute announcing his death.
Then she learned a little about the person who had been helping feed her family.
His coworkers remembered him singing at work. His musical range apparently included Ozzy Osbourne, Green Day, and Disney songs.
That is a man who could take you from “Crazy Train” to “Be Our Guest” and create a whole new world without interrupting the pepperoni.
I respect the range. Some people spend years carefully developing a musical identity. Mark apparently let the next song settle it.
The tribute also described someone who knew regular customers by name and sometimes called longtime customers when they hadn’t ordered in a while.
Imagine being missed by your pizza place.
Most businesses notice your absence just long enough to send a coupon with the subject line “We miss you!” Then you discover the reunion requires a minimum purchase and excludes Friday.
Mark actually picked up the phone.
That detail got me. There are plenty of people whose work makes our lives easier without ever becoming a story we tell. Someone opens the store. And if you’ve ever tried to fiddle with those floor door locks, you know how challenging that might be. Someone gets the order right. Someone remembers the thing you always ask for.
We encounter the result and keep moving.
Which is understandable. If you’re ordering dinner, you may have reached the portion of the evening where the family needs food and you spend 15 minutes trying to order a third cheese, a third pineapple, and my third of anchovies just to piss everyone off. After that, your remaining executive function has been assigned to finding the remote.
You aren’t conducting biographical research.
Still, it’s strange how much of a person can get compressed into one useful little sentence.
Mark is preparing your order.
No room for his songs. His coworkers. The customers he knew. Fourteen years of showing up. Just a name and the current condition of your dinner.
I’m a photographer. I understand how much can sit outside the frame. The finished photograph doesn’t show every decision, every adjustment, or the moment I’ve backed into something while concentrating on the composition.
Usually a better choice to leave that part out.
But with people, the missing portion is considerably larger.
That woman had been seeing Mark’s name for nearly a decade. After reading about him, she understood that someone she’d never really known had been making her Friday nights easier.
That’s a lovely thing to recognize. I wish she’d had the chance to tell him.
It also makes me want to pay a little more attention to the names attached to ordinary things. The person making the coffee. The person bringing the delivery. The person who has somehow remained pleasant while I explain a problem they did not personally create.
I don’t need their entire life story. They’re working. Nobody needs me leaning across a counter asking about their childhood while six people wait for sandwiches.
I’ve always struggled with the thank-you phrase.
“I appreciate you.”
“Thank you, friend.”
“Take care.”
Or my latest, “Be good to yourself.”
And if I hear somebody singing Disney songs in a pizza kitchen, I can appreciate that dinner comes with a soundtrack. I will point out that detail.
For years, a screen told one family that Mark was making the pizza.
He was.
There was just a lot more to Mark.
Don’t Pick What I Pick
Yesterday went 3–1. The White Sox supported my team-of-destiny theory, the Rays accepted several gifts from the Yankees, and Atlanta made Monday night pleasantly uneventful. Pittsburgh apparently used its rest advantage to prepare for twenty minutes of disappointing us.
Yesterday’s autopsy — October 5
- White Sox moneyline at Guardians — WIN. Chicago won 4–3. Sean Burke delivered 5⅓ innings of relief, and a three-run sixth inning put the White Sox ahead. The team of destiny may submit its paperwork.
- Penguins moneyline vs. Jets — LOSS. Winnipeg won 3–2. Pittsburgh surrendered three third-period goals. Being rested did not prevent being generous.
- Rays moneyline vs. Yankees — WIN. Tampa Bay won 5–2. A four-run fifth inning decided the game, while New York contributed four errors. Customer service like that deserves acknowledgment.
- Falcons moneyline at Saints — WIN. Atlanta won 45–24. Bijan and Brian Robinson combined for five rushing touchdowns. Taking the moneyline left us considerably more room than we needed.
ALL SPORTS: 1,125–1,128–8 — three net losses from .500.
TENNIS: 1–1.
Today’s picks — October 6
Dodgers–Braves Under 6.5
Yoshinobu Yamamoto faces Chris Sale at Truist Park. Both finished the regular season with ERAs below 2.60, and Yamamoto posted a 1.77 road ERA. I favor a pitching game here, with the late bullpen innings providing the main concern. This is the full-game under at 6.5. My Dodgers fandom would welcome a quiet victory.
Padres moneyline vs. Brewers
Nick Pivetta faces Dustin May at Petco Park. Pivetta’s strong September gives San Diego the starting-pitcher edge in my judgment. May’s excellent results against the Padres are the counterargument. San Diego facing elimination supplies urgency, but urgency cannot throw a strike. This is the full-game moneyline.
Rangers moneyline vs. Islanders
The Rangers have won three straight, and Igor Shesterkin has started strongly. I favor the home team at Madison Square Garden, while respecting an Islanders club coming off a shutout victory. Shesterkin and Ilya Sorokin are projected, unconfirmed starters at the morning check.
Southern Miss +10.5 at Troy
Our lowest-confidence selection. Landry Lyddy threw for 243 yards and three touchdowns in his last start, a three-point loss at Tulane. That gives Southern Miss a plausible route to stay within double digits. Troy deserves favoritism; I prefer taking the points. Dimers’ published cover estimate is 52.8%, suggesting only a modest edge. The complete current availability report could not be retrieved at the morning check. Keep the half-point above ten.
This isn’t called Pick What I Pick.
It’s called Don’t Pick What I Pick.
Please wager accordingly.
