Saturday, September 13, 2003

Today's Puzzler

The other day, a friend sent me one of those sweet little chain emails, which ended with an exhortation that if I didn't immediately send it to everyone I know, horrible things would befall me, but if I did send it out, I'd have good luck in direct proportion to the amount of friends' mailboxes I cluttered.

Like every other internet user, I've received zillions of these.  But, for some reason, this one got me thinking.

I got to wondering what sort of person writes these things.  What exactly is their goal here?  They want their little poem or words of wisdom to circulate to as many people as possible -- this I understand.  But they don't trust the merits of their own writing enough to just put the damn thing out there and see if people circulate it on their own.  They are so insecure, they think that it won't get adequate readership unless they attach some horrible threats of bad luck to it.  What kind of f'd up individual is this?  They believe so deeply in the importance of the stuff they're circulating -- which is usually something sugary sweet and touchy feely -- that they're willing to threaten you with horrible misfortune in order to make you keep passing it along.  "Have you told your mom you love her today?  And if you don't immediately send this to 12 of your friends, your private parts will shrivel up and fall off."

I also wonder if they genuinely believe that they have the power to grant good luck to the people who forward their email, just by saying as much.

Wouldn't that be cool?  I wanna try it.

Just by reading NZforMe's journal, you will have good luck for the rest of the day.  No, no, wait -- for the rest of your life!  Yeah, that's it.  And you'll have your dream job, and the dream mate, and perfect children, and a pet that cleans up after itself, and one of them really cool flat big screen TVs.  And, and, and -- here's the thing:  it all goes away if you EVER forward another piece of good luck/bad luck email to another human being.

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