The Steps to Follow

Here are the steps to follow, if you are my dad and you want to forward an e-mail to your daughter.

1. A funny e-mail, forwarded through hundreds of thousands of readers before you, arrives in your e-mail account. You know this because you are sitting at your desk and your wife, across the room in front of the computer, says, "Listen to this e-mail."

2. Your wife reads the e-mail to you.

3. You make a note for your secretary, in fountain pen.

4. A few days later, your secretary prints out that e-mail, including all the >>>>FWD::>>>>> headers and extra spaces and line breaks. She staples the 10 pages together and uses the paper cutter to trim all the extra white space from the bottom of each page.

5. You both wonder about that.

6. You add a note (fountain pen), "I thought you would enjoy this. Love Dad"

7. The forward is folded, put in an envelope with a typewriter-typed address label, stamped, and deposited at the post office.

8. A few days later your daughter enjoys the forward and accompanying insight into why she is not an early adopter of technology*.

* I still use a yellow, waterproof Sony Walkman**

** It plays cassette tapes.