Harnessing the Power of the Internet

I made an email gaffe the other day. It wasn't a major mishap, thankfully, but I did expose a bcc list of email adresses to all who received the email. You may have even received it. As soon as I realized what had happened, I got that "boulder in the pit of my stomach" feeling that comes from knowing that something has gone terribly wrong.

I was on the phone with Michael at the time, and when I told him what I had done, he asked, "Have you ever heard of a book called 'Send'?". He was being funny, because he knew very well that I had not only heard of the book, but had read it. And enjoyed it. And then somehow managed to ignore the authors' very wise advice to 'think before you click."

I obviously need to go back and reread it. Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home contains practical advice about email etiquette, but it's also filled with entertaining anecdotes, many from the authors' own email missteps. I am reassured that my mishap was nothing compared to some of the stories that the authors include in the book. Reading about others' blunders will certainly make me feel better. It's also a very funny book, and it's a great gift for the graduate about to enter the workplace--or for those of us who have gotten far too comfortable with communicating by email.

But just when I was cursing the power of the Internet to magnify a mistake, I discovered a blog post that made me appreciate the power of the Internet to educate about the really important things. Like this:

In honor of National Poetry Month -- do you know what these 3 songs or albums have in common?

Johnny Cash: A Boy Named Sue
Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show: Revisited
The Irish Rovers: The Unicorn

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They were all written by none other than Shel Silverstein, author of the beloved Children's poetry classic Where The Sidewalk Ends. This interview with Silverstein's nephew is a fun look at a part of Shel Silverstein's career that is, at least in the world of books, not so well known.

I'm not sure why that tickled me so much, but it did. Especially the fact that he penned the lyrics for Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show. I mentioned that to Michael, but he didn't know what I was talking about. I think he was rubbing in the fact that I just had a birthday, but I'm not that old. He must just be uninformed. So, for Michael, and for those of you that now have an ear-worm, I present you with a You-Tube video: The Cover of the Rolling Stone.



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We encourage you to write down or print out the title information and shop at your local bookstore. Titles link to LibraryThing, a social networking site that allows you to catalog your home library. They also link to various online purchasing options. Here are the books from this post:

Send : the essential guide to email for office and home by David Shipley and Will Schwalbe, Knopf hardcover, $19.95, 978-0-307-27060-3

Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein, Harper Collins hardcover with CD, $22.99, ISBN 978-0-060-29169-3

(all information is for the U.S. editions).