The Grinch

Over the last few weeks I, like you, have received hundreds of seasonal greeting and warm wishes from pretty much every faceless organisation I’ve ever granted my email address to.

Pretty much all of them are fake well-wishers of course, none of them know me or care one way or the other whether I had a good Christmas or will have a great New Year. What they have in common is that all of them would like me to continue buying stuff from them, and to prove it they show me their stuff. Again and again.

Some at least try to tempt me by promoting their sale – which they have done every week now for months – or by providing a discount code (which expires in a few seconds). The most annoying of the current seasonal spams are the ones that give me a countdown to the expiry of their offer, assuming that if they tell me often enough that I’m running out of time, that I’ll just give in under the weight of their mail.

The trouble, of course, is that some of this works sometimes – everyone loves a bargain and I’m currently floating down the Rhine taking advantage of one such offer – escape after Christmas! And actually enjoying it too – New Year’s celebrations in Frankfurt have to be see to be believed – should you survive the ‘shock and awe’ of the event. Pity about the city itself, best to just float on through.

I could unsubscribe from the legitimate spammers but somehow I don’t – just occasionally something pops up that’s useful or interesting and/or cheap, so I guess it’s my own fault for being as gullible as everyone else.

Anyway, I’m adding to the pile of motivated well-wishers here – so do have a good one.

And do keep buying our stuff.