Mailbag

 

     Okay. I've really got to stop answering email. I'm reading off an old program — the idea we're discussing issues, having conversations. When that isn't what's happening at all. We're cudgeling each other with words. Or making non-negotiable demands. Consider this email that arrived Tuesday. I've obscured the sender's email and company name, out of kindness, so they don't get abuse. It's a business, a wan YouTube channel with a couple videos on it, and a name that has the marginal feeling of "The Tiny Tots Fun Station:"

   Now my standard reply when people suggest column topics is that I'm not the piano player in a Holiday Inn lounge. I don't take requests. And now that I read it, and its presumptive tone sinks in, I should have replied, simply, "You didn't say 'please.'" But in the moment I noticed something else about the above, something missing. Give it a going over; I've reproduced the entire email except for the company name.

    My reply:

    

.    The reply was a strange spin on "Don't you know who I am?"

     And that was the end. Not worth the effort, right?