Sept. 2001, when I was on a one year contract as an adjunct art professor, we attended an Art Dept. retreat where the evening entertainment was sculpting Spam (the processed meat product) into famous works of art. Yikes! I watched from the sidelines.
The current war against internet spam, I have stepped off the sidelines and have personally joined the fray. All of us get obnoxious emails encouraging us to enlarge our peni (dang, I didn’t know I had one!), increase breast size (actually, I would like to go down a cup or two in size, thank you), or get a mortage (on my income in SoCal? Not a day before I am 85), etc etc etc etc.
In fact, today, Sunday the 4th of May, I had 14 messages awaiting me in my primary email box. Each and every one of them was unsolicited SPAM! Not processed pork coming to me through my computer, but bad email.
About 2 weeks ago, I decided to fight back. Now, when I receive a spam mail obviously intended for a man (Increase your Penis size 2-3 inches!), I kindly email back the sender – “Thank you for your informational email. But unfortunately, I am a female, not a male, and I do not have a penis.” Then for personal entertainment, I thoroughly insult the sender with creative insults that would make the Iraqi Minister of Information proud of me.
Yes, I realize that by replying it now has confirmation that I exist, but it makes me feel a great deal better to know that some email bot is getting a foul multiple syllabic response…. Not that it cares, but I feel a wee bit more empowered against the onslaught.