Big companies don't do business via chain letter. Bill Gates is
not giving you $1000, and Disney is not giving you a free vacation.
There is no baby food company issuing class-action checks. You can
relax; there is no need to pass it on "just in case it's true".
Furthermore, just because someone said in the message, four
generations back, that "we checked it out and it's legit", does not
actually make it true.
There is no kidney theft ring in New Orleans. No one is waking
up in a bathtub full of ice, even if a friend of a friend swears it
happened to their cousin. If you are hellbent on believing the
kidney-theft ring stories, please see: http://urbanlegends.tqn.com/library/weekly/aa062997.htm
And I quote: "The National Kidney Foundation has repeatedly issued
requests for actual victims of organ thieves to come forward and
tell their stories. None have." That's "none" as in "zero". Not
even your friend's cousin.
Neiman Marcus doesn't really sell a $200 cookie recipe. And
even if they do, we all have it. And even if you don't, you can get
a copy at: http://www.bl.net/forwards/cookie.html.
Then, if you make the recipe and decide the cookies are that
awesome, feel free to pass the recipe on.
We all know all 500 ways to drive your roommates crazy, irritate
co-workers, gross out bathroom stall neighbors and creep out people
on an elevator. We also know exactly how many engineers, college
students, Usenet posters and people from each and every world
ethnicity it takes to change a lightbulb, and what the differences
are between males and females.
Even if the latest NASA rocket disaster(s) DID contain plutonium
that went to particulate over the eastern seaboard, do you REALLY
think this information would reach the public via an AOL
chain-letter?
There is no "Good Times" virus. In fact, you should never,
ever, ever forward any email containing any virus warning unless you
first confirm it at an actual site of an actual company that
actually deals with virii. Try: http://www.av.ibm.com/current/FrontPage/
or http://www.norton.com. And
even then, don't forward it. We don't care.
If your CC: list is regularly longer than the actual content of
your message, you're probably going to Hell.
If you're using Outlook, IE, or Netscape to write email, turn
off the "HTML encoding." Those of us on Unix shells can't read it,
and don't care enough to save the attachment and then view it with a
web browser, since you're probably forwarding us a copy of the
Neiman Marcus Cookie Recipe anyway.
If you still absolutely MUST forward that 10th-generation
message from a friend, at least have the decency to trim the eight
miles of headers showing everyone else who's received it over the
last 6 months. It sure wouldn't hurt to get rid of all the ">" that
begin each line. Besides, if it has gone around that many times -
we've probably already seen it.
Craig Shergold in England is not dying of cancer or anything
else at this time and would like everyone to stop sending him their
business cards. He apparently is also no longer a "little boy"
either.