Remember, how I reacted to all those "dittys" that I used to receive from various friends. I usually deleted them, returned them, or told the senders that I don't accept that stuff - because way back in the 1 cent postal card days of the '20s & '30s etc. we heard about the WWI veteran that had written from Flanders Fields (French burial grounds for the ones who gave their lives "Over There"). The appeal was to copy and send 10 copies of that message to others, friends, whomever, for Good Luck, and if you didn't do so you would eventually come up on Bad Luck - an oman. In the '20s & early 30s, because of the Depression, the 1929 Bank Failures, people did NOT need any Bad Luck, so you took the Risk, and wrote post cards/& or Letters to spread the word. They became known as Chain Letters. Those Chain Letters then developed into all sorts of gimmicks - money, hankies (fancy handkerchiefs for looks, popular in those times). Eventually, the chain letters developed into the Pyramids, by writing large numbers of letters, and enclosing money, booze, whatever, you would "get rich" on whatever the item might be. The Postal Inspectors put a kibosh on the $$$ thing. The Federal Communications Commission, among those deregulated, had clout with the communications in the U.S. (including telephone lines). And so it goes, or Passes, that we become gullible for such schemes to get something for little or nothing, and it is so inviting and "seems to make sense" that if we follow through with the directions, that you, too will be the benefactor of all this uncanny effort to become "Lucky" and so that you won't have "Bad Luck" if you "Break the Chain". The word "chain" itself had color in early times, there were "Chain Gangs"at Prisons, and in Timber, or Saw Mills. "Radar" became "big", and "FM", and "Stereo", and "virus" ( the medical world, and now the Computer World aka Cyberspace, after the Space word has been bandied about). Isn't it interesting how the "human being" gets "caught up" in intellectual paraguese? The era of the ______-gate has nearly run its gamut, and now we keep adding new and more "mysterious" words, abbreviations, expressions to our utterances, spoken, and written - even "e-mailed". Webster, Oxford, and the rest in each of their newer editions have to decide what new expletives have been "coined" sufficiently to be added to the collection. I used to hit the dictionaries of slang, and the various other dictionaries of color (variety), as they are almost as interesting as the dictionaries, or books on the derivation of words over the centuries - try them, they are fascinating reading. All this from a penny post card, or a 2, or 3 cent stamp for an envelope, whereas it is now 33 cents, but times have changed - the 3 cents "back then" would probably buy as much as the 33 cents does today. It is hard to believe that a person could buy a meal - and a pretty darned good one for 5 cents, but I just saw it on TV the other nite when I was watching one of them (sic) "talking pitchers!". Keep those cards and letters coming, soz ya won't have any Bad Luck - the Weather is Bad Enough, let alone the "Luck" - those who Play the Lotto ( as I do!) know whereby we speak. Don't take any Wooden Nickles! (What brought all this dissertation about - Well I received a Spoof on the Scare e-mail that we get ever so often, from my good friend Lady Dari, aka the Bookstorelady, that runs that den of iniquity, called the 3rd. Street Bookstore in Marysville. I won't reprint the Spoof, but it includes, the chain letters, Bill Gates, "Join the Crew", or Crewe, and other little ditties that have popped up on our screens, including the Storm Warnings of 1989-1999, which I contributed to the melee, late Summer, or early Fall. Just when we tho't we had it all under our hats, now the millenium is coming - you get that Baby going, and throw in the Position of the Planets, and your Psychics will have full time jobs, keeping all of us informed, if the TV Channels fail to do so.). What can they do with the word G E N E A L O G Y ? Totem Poles are now becoming known as Story Poles, and the word Totem Pole isn't even mentioned. New Math, New Language! Isn't it Wunnerful ? Carroll in Snohomish B.S. in Languages <><><>{{{{LADY DARI}}}}<><><> ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]