By Matt B. Walen
I dont like to get up on my soapbox and harp too much because it sounds like Im whining.
Sometimes, however, an issue needs debating or a situation arises that must be scrutinized to the final detail.
Last year I whined about receiving numerous late-night telephone calls from solicitors wanting to make that final sale. The whine continued into the realm junk mail.
This year I would like to try to tackle junk e-mail. Whoops, pardon me, e-mail is like Lays chips, you cant eat just one. Junk e-mail is like bunny rabbits, just turn around theres a couple more hopping around your computer.
But unlike telephone solicitors or extra envelopes in the mail, junk e-mails arent too much of a bother.
Those annoying telephone calls always come in the middle of my favorite television show, during a key moment in the game (football, baseball, basketball or hockey your choice), or worse when Im powdering my nose in the little boys room.
These are some very effective techniques in getting rid of the annoyance of telemarketers, but I prefer to let the phone workers go through their whole sales pitch and then tell them thanks, but no thanks.
Ill let the phone dangle loosely from my ear so I can hear what the TV is blaring out, or reach across the stove to turn down the boiling vegetables. No one can interrupt me from cooking dinner or catching the latest sports action on the tube.
And then it was on to the tons of junk mail from God only knows what companies. Hard to believe these companies would want to spend the money and waste the paper for envelopes that get filed under G for garbage.
I heard, but dont know if its true or not, that if you inform the companies of the errors of the wasteful ways, they are required by law to stop sending you junk mail. This is something to think about.
Now were on to e-mail. The Internet is a booming industry just look at the Internet stocks rising through the roof. But along with this great new technology comes a way for nosy business salesmen to get their cyberfoot in the door.
This cyber technology also causes problems for the other businesses that send out the information. People can just reject the e-mails with a flick of the mouse finger.
The only good thing about junk e-mails it saves paper and postage. The bad side is it takes a lot of my time to read through each piece of expertly written prose. Let me tell you, there are a lot of doozies out there and lets hope they stay there.
We get a lot of writers wanting the Daily News to publish their weekly column for a small fee. After a quick review (about five seconds, give or take a sec) of Johnny No Ones Life and Times of a Bug in South Florida, I mercilessly hit the delete button and sent the work into the great cyberspace beyond.
The Daily News has started to receive more letters to the editor via the Internet. This is good and bad good because the writers care about trying to make a difference, but bad for us because we need to have the authors signature verified. If the letter is local and we can contact the writer quickly, the letter has a great shot at making the papers editorial page.
We are also starting to get a lot of press releases through the Internet which saves time for the most part. There are times when the information doesnt come through or we cant access the files and there is trouble. But that is a rarity and e-mail has been a Godsend for the most part.
Ah, to live in a perfect junk (e-mail, mail and telephone calls) free world. I dare to dream the great dream.
