If you don’t read James Lileks regularly, you don’t know what you’re missing.
Lileks is a columnist from Minnesota and, while he publishes a semi-weekly column and has authored a couple of hilarious books, he’s also a bit of a blogger, publishing entries Mondays through Fridays.
Some are good, some are mediocre, some are wrong/misguided, but all are entertaining, in my humble opinion. He spanned the whole spectrum last week in a space of two days.
To wit, an entry from the Good, from last Wedensday’s Bleat:
[Mr. Lileks has just received a piece of definitely unsolicited email and is engaging in an investigation of sorts. -ed.]
There was a link to click if I didn’t want anymore mail, but I usually suspect these to be a sneaky form of email validation. They went to a bulk mailer that had, huzzah, a webpage that promised a stern opposition to spam. (coff.) This is like the IRS webpage announcing its strict no-tax policy. There was an email link to report abuse, however that might be defined – and a phone number.
So I called it. Got right through to a cheerful operator who gave a prompt apology, and told me to click on the email address. I said I didn’t trust anyone in this business, frankly, no insult intended, but let’s do this now. I wanted to say “you just make some typing noises and I’ll be temporarily mollified,†but I didn’t want to give him any ideas. He understood; he removed my domain from all their lists, first making sure that I was aware of the consequences: I would not receive anything from any of their 25,000 clients.
“It’s a risk I’m willing to take,†I said.
“Okay!†Typing noises. “I’ll go ahead and remove your domain from our records. Thank you for calling!â€
“Thank you for your courteous assistance.â€
I hung up feeling a bit disoriented; it was like phoning Hell and getting a nice young demon who promised they will never bother you again with temptation. Would you like to opt out of all the deadly sins, or just some?†Gluttony and envy for now. Avarice keeps me working hard. “Alllrighty then!”
Heh.
