"It's not personal, Sonny. It's business."

Finding 40-50 e-mails about Viagara in your mailbox can be annoying. This type of mail can justifiably be called "spam." But is it really necessary to get all hot under the collar when a friend sends you a few cartoons, or a series of Oprah jokes? Isn't it easier to just delete these e-mails than to put you and your friend in an uncomfortable position, by asking him to stop sending you stuff. The worst part is that you might miss out on a great joke about a canned ham, some mittens, and a Sufi gynecologist.

How about this? Someone asks to be put on the NYCD Newsletter mailing list, then repeatedly deletes the newsletter. What has this world come to that we can't find three minutes to read about "The Hollies" or "The Strokes?" There is of course the possibility that these "deleters" think our newsletter sucks. But that couldn't be true.

Or more recently this happened: 5 minutes after yesterday's letter went out, 5 people requested to be removed from the list. These 5 people had just requested to be put ON the list. Are we that offensive? Does the NYCD Newsletter cause physical pain. "I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE. STOP WRITING ABOUT DR. JOHN! MY CHEST HURTS!"

On a positive note, maybe the 5 who asked to be removed preferred reading the blog. For that matter, if everyone read the blog, we wouldn't have to deal with the mailing list. And if everyone went to Trotsky's restaurant at the same time, there'd be total chaos. But they don't. So then what are we saying really?

Read the newsletter. Read the blog. Buy some CDs and then we can digest our food better.