nonsuch

I usually have to wade through an ocean of spam each morning, and I generally delete them with reckless abandon. But today, today, I found such an unsolicited commercial email pearl that I had to share.

The email was from Phillips Norelco, with the subject “Are you experiencing Second Puberty?”. With a title like that, from Norelco of all places, I was intrigued. Click on the image below to see email.

Once you see the graphic blown up, you quickly get the idea that the message is about ear and nose hair — you know, the two places where men continue to grow hair after they’ve lost it everywhere else. Inside the email is a link to “Take the first step”. When I click, it took me here:
http://info.philips.com/?key=SvSM5g38gcwk2lp8303frh2xpM

The web link launches an extremely funny video about a guy with a nose hair problem, but it shifts to a series of six animated cartoons that were so funny I was crying. This is the most enjoyable piece of spam I’ve ever received, and it has actually made me interested in their product — which is the whole point of spam in the first place. Extremely clever and effective email.

First watch this:

… then watch this:

Harry Shearer’s genius at work. Silent Presidential Debates, where the candidates say nothing at all.

Debate I.
Debate II.
Debate III.

I have a love-hate relationship with my email. I can’t stay away from it, but I also hate wasting time sorting through dozens, sometimes hundreds, of unwanted pieces of spam. But every now and then, something entertaining comes in that brightens my day.

Today I got spam from a Chinese company offering me their plastic injection molding services. The Engrish contained therein was highly enjoyable.

After riding on Amtrak’s Cardinal line from Cincinnati to Washington DC, at unbearably slow speeds at times in the middle of nowhere, I now really appreciate high-speed transportation by rail. Britain will soon have a train that can go from London to Paris is little more than two hours, at speeds over 180 miles-per-hour! MSNBC has the story.

Well, it’s not Labor Day anymore… but I still found this blog post by Seth Godin very interesting. He talks about Labor Day, hard work, and risk.

Our Amtrak train crawled into DC over 3 hours late, at about 9:30pm. We were famished. Packed everyone into a cab and screamed down Connecticut Ave. towards P St. NW, where our hotel was (three blocks from Dupont Circle). Checked into the hotel just as quick as we could, and went foraging for food around 10:30pm. The closest, safest (as in, no argument, no disagreement) food source was a Subway on P St. NW, about 2 blocks from our hotel.

The restaurant was clean, service was very pleasant and quick, and the subs were delicious. But the restaurant was really warm, almost hot.

The next morning, as we headed towards the Metro station, we saw this: our beloved Subway, burned out!

According to another passerby, the fire started around 2:30am — just a few hours after we were there. Whew!

We were in DC shortly after Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General for the United States, announced his resignation. I snapped this photo while walking in front of the Department of Justice.

Sure beats the heck out of sorting and packing, particularly when there is the possibility of a special prosecutor down the line!

FYI: “Fredo” is President Bush’s pet name for Mr. Gonzales. If you’ve ever seen The Godfather, particularly Part II, it might make you wonder if Mr. Gonzales ever warmed up to that nickname.

Rebecca hates rats. I mean, really hates rats. When she was out of the office one day we staged a rat infestation on her desk with a plastic rat, complete with open sardine can and melted tootsie roll “rat droppings”.

She screamed. Mission Accomplished.

Introducing, Hide-A-Pod:

Go to http://www.hideapod.com to order one of these gems.