Email and newsgroups have qualities that seem to invite unusual behavior. Again, these are very rare occurrences, but when they happen they exhibit very clear patterns:

For some men, anonymity of email and newsgroups seems to provide a rare ability to express strong emotions without filters normally (and quite rightly) imposed by society.

For some women, email is an easy way to pose as morally superior without nuisance of actually ~being~ morally superior.

EMOTIONALLY UNSTABLE MEN

(No, girls, that's not redundant. Let's not be catty.)

Sorry fellas, but it would be reverse-sexist of me to pretend that I get this kind of email from women:

Dear Ms Cox,

You said that people who don't like spam have small brains. Well, I HATE spam and I have an extra large brain, so you are stupid and everything you say is stupid, and you are stupid, and anyone who thinks you are not stupid is stupid.

You're welcome,

Mike S. Angry Young Man

Wow! I guess someone wasn't breastfed.

If anyone actually walked up to me and spoke that way in person, they'd walk away with a wake-up dose of pepper spray sluicing through their freshly violated colon.

Obviously, "Mike S." possesses kind of brainpower that makes one-card monty dealers rejoice in their career choice, but is that an excuse for such a self-indulgent attack? What is?

"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist black flag, and begin slitting throats." --H.L. Mencken

Sweet Jesus!! That's NORMAL ones?!? Thank God there are so few. (Oops, catty.)

I suppose that all men have a demon of rage crouching deep within, tightly coiled, set to spring at least provocation like a runner off blocks--some murky throwback to cave days when survival might depend on a split-second transition from sound sleep to ferocious bloodlust; a mood swing on steroids.

"He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of pain of being a man." --Samuel Johnson

Fact is, it's almost impossible to spend any amount of time on Net without accomplishing something, even when you don't want to. Now, doing nothing - that takes focus and discipline. Sounds odd, but hardcore slacker must be very picture of diligence in his fight against that old bugaboo - productivity. Let your guard down for a second and you'll be calculating your mortgage before you can say "dude". While it's true there's nothing out there, if you want to find Nothing you gotta know where to look.

For your first foray into oblivion, try Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (www.bartley.com/100). Seems quotable people have always had plenty to say about Nothing, (although some of it is really something, so watch your back). Geoffrey Chaucer once wrote, "Nothing can be done at once hastily and prudently". Since he wrote that instead of saying it, I think it's safe to say wiser words were never not spoken about Nothing. And, of course, it was William Shakespeare who wrote, "Nothing will come of nothing", which makes a lot of sense when you don't think about it.