Semul the Barbarian The Law Firm of Semul, Laknar, and Frisch 14 Rubber Beltway Saginaw, MI Professor Extraordinaire Robert Paul Robert Paul Enterprises Mutton College Station, OR Dear Pendragon Robert Paul: It was with hilarity bordering on amusement that we reviewed your recent bellyaching missive, or should I say, your report of receiving 1,000 Spam E-mails from from hot Chinese housewives living in Uganda. Your assertion that, “I can finance my Italian digs with a low-cost, guaranteed loan,” raised more than a few single-eyebrows on battle-scarred faces here. While the Internet may be a boundless field of free enterprise for you, there are other, less fortunate members of our society for whom seizing hot Chinese housewives living in Uganda is a long and toilsome affair, and this includes a number of Ostrogoth lawyers and savage paralegal professionals employed at this firm. We have lately adopted the use of an eight-sided war mace, with mixed results, and though we intend to persevere, we are less than sanguine about more modern technologies. We understand, by your quittance, that you wish to sell us bottle caps; unfortunately, our import facility recently outsourced to Skagens Odde is working at top capacity and we must politely decline. In future, please restrict your communications to a series of flaming pitched-soaked arrows shot into our camp--one arrow for "No Roman armies massing on the horizon," and two arrows for "here come the Romans again." This is our standard practice and we hope that you can abide by it. Again, let me tell you how unusual it was to receive the notice of your good fortune. We shall behead an oxen in your honor, roast it, feast upon it, and drink its blood in homage to our battle gods. Our cries shall echo far into the darkness beyond our encampment. Cordially yours, Semul the Barbarian The Law Firm of Semul, Laknar, and Frisch ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html