Give Me A Break

I have a pet peeve that drives me nuts. Lately it seems like every time I check my email, there is some dire warning that has been sent by some well-meaning person, cautioning me against the dangers of...

microwaving in plastic containers

drinking diet drinks

breaking any variety of "chain emails"...(send it on to 10 people immediately or all your hair will fall out)

Take your pick...or use your imagination...just when I think I've seen it all, along comes another one, each one more ridiculous than the last. Most are just annoying, but some are downright dangerous. I received one recently with the old myth that if you are being held-up at an ATM, you should enter your PIN code backwards and the police will be alerted. I do good to remember it the correct way...can you imagine trying to figure out your PIN backwards with a weapon pointed in your face? That's a good way to get a bullet in your head.

If you receive such an email and you are tempted to pass it on, please take a moment to check it out and verify that it is legit. Go to http://snopes.com/ and do a search. I was there looking up something today and I read, "Health scare artists have found a whole new medium for terrorizing the public - the Internet." That's about what most of these emails amount to...just another medium to strike terror in our hearts. Aren't there enough legitimate things in the world to worry about without all this hype? You know...like a comet colliding with us...or having an car accident and realizing that you have on your holey underwear...or that your toddler will repeat in Sunday School what you said when you stumped your baby toe on the kitchen chair.

Please do your part to help stop the email garbage...otherwise a computer virus will destroy all your files and you will have to eat all your meals from a microwaved plastic container while sipping a Diet Coke.