Mark as Spam
For this post, I’m stealing my husband’s idea. In his last Cinema Talk column, published in the current flyer for the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque, he wrote about the funny spam his blog receives. Spammers post on blogs because, of course, they want their website to appear with their comment, hoping that people will click on their link. Spam is generally caught automatically and sent into its own file, where ruthless bloggers such as myself can empty it.
But since my husband’s column, I’ve been paying more attention to my spam, which I had not only ruthlessly, but heedlessly deleted before. I never noticed how much encouragement, mystery, and fractured English these messages contained!
My last post directed readers to an interview with me at another site, conducted by an expert on dialectical behavior therapy. A website concerned with belly fat (presumably eliminating it) went out of its way to encourage me: “You’re completely right on this piece!!!”
A treadmill concern, not necessarily adept at English, was similarly appreciative. “Great! thanks for the share!” they told me.
The longest, least grammatical, and most enigmatic came from a weird website I can’t identify. The comment refers to a city in Belgium or an unpleasant vegetable–I’m not sure which. I love the jaunty final greeting!
“Hi there, just became aware of your weblog by way of Google, and identified that it is genuinely informative. I’m gonna watch out for brussels. I’ll be grateful in case you continue this in future. A lot of men and women is going to be benefited from your writing. Cheers!”