Wow, what about this new trend in Spam subject lines, trying to sucker you in with some bizarro dystopian vision of a Martin-Amis-like world gone south. A sort of Alternate Reality reading of tabloid headlines:

Britney in coma, feared dead
Tornado in New York destroys city
Democrats withdraw Obama from Race
Angelina Jolie Dies in Miscarriage
Ben Sheets named All-Star Same starting picher

Oh. Wait. That last one was for real (anyone else on the Milwaukee Brewers mailing list? Did they REALLY misspell "pitcher"?)

The interesting thing about this new e-mail trend is, if you open it, a SECOND awful headline appears, before a link that -- by now -- anyone with even half a brain will realize probably doesn't link to the New York Times online:

Nicole Kidman loses baby in miscarriage
James Brown dies of heart attack
Military insurgence in Afghan, US troops killed
New evidence confirms US Moon landing was a hoax

My favorite one-two punch so far is the subject line Elton John dies in rocket ship followed by "Federal regulators prepared to infringe individual rights by restricting what consumers can do online." Try saying THAT three times fast.

I find trends in e-mail Spam subject lines fascinating. I wonder if anyone's ever done a study on them...

EDIT: Apparently someone has written on the trend. Interesting...

****

Yes, I did change yesterday's punchline three times.



Every now and then, a syndicate inquires as to whether I'd want to do Dork Tower as a daily strip. I've never really had the time to pursue it. Still. God help anyone who eventually becomes my editor.

****

Quite liking Thunderbird as a mail program, so thanks to all for recommending it (I prefer my mail Application-based to Web-based, hence not going with the alsso highly recommended Gmail).

How to transfer mailboxes from "Mail" to "Thunderbird," when Thunderbird doesn't even recognize that you've got a Mail application when you go to "Import Mailboxes." Hmmm...

****

Hurmmmm. I'm a LOT closer to 100 games than I thought I was before.

Just did up a spreadsheet, so I wouldn't miscount. Apparently, I've worked on 98 games. To wit:

( The Games 98 )

At this point in time, I'm working on six games (one of which - Texterity - I also created)

Supersonic (Out of the Box)
Lightning (Out of the Box)
Texterity! (Out of the Box)
Word on the Street (Out of the Box Games)
Run Wild (Out of the Box Games)
Munchkin Quest II (Steve Jackson Games)

Munchkin Quest II will most likely be the next one I finish, sometime very soon. So I'll be at Ninty-nine. Supersonic, Lightning and Texterity and also pretty far along. Sooooooo....

...sometime in the next month, it looks like I'll hit the 100 games mark!

Frankly, I'm as shocked at this as you are. I mean, for a start...well...how to put this delicately?...DON'T GAMES COMPANIES REALIZE I CAN'T EVEN DRAW A FOURTH FINGER? Goodness sakes. Anyhoo, I wonder if there's some way to celebrate that (the "100 Games" thing. Not the "Can't draw four fingers" thing). Shame I won't be at GenCon...that would have been the perfect place to throw a party...