The following spam from my old friend ted@tytcorp.com was waiting for me when I opened my in box this evening:

I wanted to touch base with you...
are you still looking to find a Home-Based Business?

Look this over: replicapages.com

A few details:
- BUILD YOUR BUSINESS ON AUTOPILOT with our Online Lead Generation and Marketing System.

- WORLD WIDE business... in over 170 Countries.

- It's totally AUTOMATED AND CUSTOMIZED TO YOU.

- You'll never believe what it does.

- There's nothing like it on the net!

If you have e-mail, chances are you have already seen this message or one much like it. I find myself wondering what, if any, logic is behind that opening couplet. Do the authors of this come-on anticipate that a majority of their recipients, victims of short term memory loss or some form of brain damage all, will think that they actually know this person who "wanted to touch base with" them? Perhaps the spammers are not really trying to fool anyone and believe their message will be construed as an error, mistakenly sent to the wrong address or somehow misrouted in the highways and byways of cyberspace.

Could it be that this is actually an effective means of advertising due to the hoards of folks, especially those susceptible to spam messages, who might be tempted by the mention of a "Home-Based Business"?

I don't know and, despite the length of this post, I don't care.

Hmmm. . . reminds me of a song by World Entertainment War - what is the difference between apathy and ignorance?