TheBanyanTree: Life Stories 196

[JNorton]

If it's any consolation, or maybe to add to the mystery, one hit my 
SPAM folder, the other went to my inbox. Perhaps even the internet is 
schizophrenic, or suffering from MPD?

Jena
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tobie Shapiro" <tobie at shpilchas.net>
To: "The Banyan Tree" <thebanyantree at remsset.com>
Sent: Saturday, April 07, 2007 9:12 AM
Subject: TheBanyanTree: Life Stories 196


April 7, 2000000000000007


Dear Steerers of your own ships,

I sent off my Life Stories 195 yesterday,
and it failed to appear in my in bucket.  I kept
looking for it, but it didn't arrive.  When
things like this happen, I ascribe them to the
mysteries of the internet, the inscrutable
computer phenomena.  It isn't possible for me to
sleuth them out. I know how to type.  I type
fast.  But my computer is a glorified IBM
Selectric.  I do not understand its inner
workings, nor do I comprehend the inner workings
of the internet.  So after a few hours, when I
was sure it wasn't going to arrive at all, I sent
it again.  And that one didn't arrive either.
Thus it was that I figured there was something up
at Banyan Tree headquarters  (think of that word:
headquarters.  It could be grizzly.)  This
morning I arrived at my computer hoping that
either one of my missives had arrived, and that
Banyan Tree was fully operational.  I saw
Margaret Kramer's piece shining at me, so I knew
my 195 should have arrived, but it didn't (they
didn't).  What there was, though, was my daily
SPAM filter mailing.  I have to click on the URL
and go to the bin where they are holding all my
suspected SPAM, go over it for possible false
positives, erase the rest.  So, once a day I am
faced with, "Why be a small man?",  "Rx by mail",
"You could be a winner,"  "Hi, Tobie, remember
me?", and the standard, "Impeach Bush", "Send us
money".  There was a long list today.  And there,
among the SPAM were my two Life Stories 195, the
evil SPAM sender, Tobie Shapiro.  I selected them
out for delivery to my in box, and approved the
sender for future deliveries.

Okay.  So I'm a SPAMmer.  I send these
horrible stories to the millions of people on my
list, hoping to get business from less than 1%.
That's still a lot of business.  But the puzzle
remains unsolved; the mysteries of the internet
and the inscrutable computer phenomena still
apply.  Why would just this one day, the
professional SPAM detectors filter out my Life
Stories as SPAM when they've never done that
before?  Was there something about the subject
line?  Is there a suspicious aura about the
number 195 as opposed to 193 or 194?  Was there
something new added at SPAM filter headquarters
(there's that word again)?  Can there be a fluke?
But then, what are the chances of the fluke being
repeated?  I am awash in the conundrum.  I am
flummoxed by the maddening mystique of the
computer.