"A friend is someone who dislikes the same people you dislike."

I'm beginning to find it exceedingly irksome--no maddening-- to be getting e-mails without end from friends that contain jokes or articles about politics, politicians, muslims, Israel, Yiddish, Immigration, the economy, taxation, Obama, Sarah Palin, W., Iraq, Iran, Yemensville, Afghanistan, or any other information that I can get for myself on the internet or in my newspaper. I do not want to be irked around anymore. Hear? Now I have many friends, some of whom are even dear, some of whom are mere acquaintances who, for some mysterious reason find it compelling to bombard my inbox with e-mails that have nothing whatsoever to do with themselves or their lives. I don't know if sending an original or forwarding an unoriginal e-mail of the kind I have cited to a friend does something for the ego of the person sending it--something like, "Oh, see what I found for you to read! I'm really puffed up about finding this joke/article/story and I'm really into it and I can't wait to get it into you to show you how into it I am.!" I don't think the internet was established for these kinds of e-mails. The garbage you get you can find all by yourself and it just disappears into your trash folder at once.

What I want from a friend is an e-mail about his daily life. How is he feeling? How's the spouse? Any news about the children or grandchildren? See any good movies or shows lately? Read any good books? How was the vacation, the cruise, the flight? However, I rarely if ever, get anything like these things. Now, I would love to share my friends' life experiences with them. I never send a joke. Ever. And rarely send an article unless I'm certain the recipient of my e-mail would have a special interest in reading it. If friends want to know about my own daily life, all they have to do is tune in to my blogs at www.homeoftheredbaron.blogspot.com and they'll find out what I'm doing with my life and what I think about things going on in the world. If a friend is interested in me, he'll find the blog. This, I believe, is the way to go on the internet. Of course, the news needn't be in a blog; it can be in an e-mail, but don't irk me any more with article after joke after article after joke after cartoon without any knowledge of the writer that comes anywhere in the mail except in the "From" box. I don't need to know who the crapola is from--I would like to know more about the "From". I'm not attempting to be "nosy"--I just don't want to be besieged anymore with a "Hey, Norm, look at this! and then pass it on, or you'll have 7 years bad luck." Yeah. Right. But at my age, I'll just take the 7 years!