Date: Sun, 9 Nov 1997 13:47:51 -0500

From: Evan Morris words1[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]WORD-DETECTIVE.COM

Subject: Re: Word of the Year



At 09:33 AM 11/7/97 -0500, Grant Barrett wrote:



My unofficial nomination for word of the year is:



SPAM: unsolicited, bulk email (there is also a verb form). Alternate

sense: to bombard people with useless information. Source possibly a

Monty Python skit in which the name of the product "Spam" is used a

zillion times in a list of menu possibilities in a comedic reference to

the main source of meat in post-WWII Britain.



I was sort of considering this one too. It certainly is the WOTY for

anyone on the net to any extent, though I'm not sure it really qualifies as

making a splash with the public in general.



Howzabout "tabloid"?



Speaking of spam (not to start another computer discussion, but this is a

really nifty tip), if you use a mail program with filters (such as Eudora),

create one to intercept any message with "remove" or "removed" in the body

text. Most spam contains a pro forma apology and offer to "remove" you

from the list. The offer is nearly always bogus, but the word "remove" is

a handy handle with which to vault the garbage into a holding mailbox (I

call mine "crap") which you can then skim every week or so (in case some

legit mail ended up there) and then delete en masse.





--

Evan Morris

words1[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]word-detective.com

http://www.word-detective.com