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Will Ohio suffer a cookie shortage this Christmas?
Looking for energy efficient windows for your home?
Last call for gingerbread syrup.
Tell Gavin Newsom what you think!
That's just a small sampling of the subject lines in spam e-mails I've received in the last couple of days.
It was always annoying to open up our mailboxes, figuring there would be bills and other unwanted, but necessary, envelopes inside. Then, we find solicitations for credit cards or insurance plans or maybe even some magazine to which you have never subscribed.
Those are easy to get rid of if you don't want them. Tear them up, or shred them and toss them away.
In the electronic age, though, there isn't a day that goes by where some unwanted bit of electronic messaging doesn't hit your inbox.
While it's certainly easier to dispose of spam e-mail (just click a couple of buttons and they're gone) they can be just as annoying, especially when it comes to your job.
Obtaining information is a major component of journalism. Whether it's through telephone calls, text messages, in-person meetings, or whatever other means one might have, getting the facts together for our reports is necessary.
Sometimes, that information comes in the form of e-mails as we correspond with sources or receive updates on meetings or other activities in our communities. In a profession where minutes count, then, we don't necessarily want to waste our time deleting a bunch of unnecessary and unwanted messages sent by some mass messaging system.
Some of my favorite, and most frustrating, are when I receive a couple dozen copies of the same form letter, supposedly sent by different people. They come from different accounts, with different names, often from a particular geographical region, but the words are all the same.
The most recent example is a letter encouraging support for some legislation dealing with car racing. The emails all claim to be from people throughout Pennsylvania.
The bill is supposedly making its way through Congress, and called the Recognizing the Protection of Motorsports Act (or RPM -- I sometimes wonder who gets paid to come up with the names for legislation).
According to the numerous e-mails I've received, the bill "protects the right to convert an automobile or motorcycle into a racecar used exclusively at the track." Apparently, it's tied into Clean Air Act regulations and was introduced about a year ago. That seems to be where it ended, as far as I can tell, referred to committee in Congress, with no motion since then.
It doesn't appear as if there is anything more recent, but that hasn't stopped all of these e-mails from coming through.
Also, since I'm mentioning the bill in this column, I'll probably be inundated with additional spam about it in the coming weeks.
Unfortunately, spam filters don't always seem to work in catching everything, so I have to be extra careful when looking through the inbox. In fact, sometimes the filters work too well and catch an e-mail we actually need, which is just as frustrating.
For future reference, though, in the event any spam senders or bots happen to review this piece, if it doesn't have to do with events in West Virginia, eastern Ohio or western Pennsylvania, chances are I don't need it. Also, I don't drink wine, need to stay away from sweets, and get my medical and dietary advice from professionals.
By the way, I do realize this is just a "first world" type of problem. Quite frankly, I simply couldn't think of anything else on which to focus this week.
(Howell, a resident of Colliers, is managing editor of The Weirton Daily Times, and can be contacted at chowell@weirtondailytimes.com or followed on Twitter @CHowellWDT)