Why Does It Happen? Because It Happens. Roll The Bones.

Got an e-mail about a week ago from Mike Redmond, a fellow who used to write columns for the Star. I quoted one of those columns in a blog post back in June to do with James Taylor. Somehow, one of Mike’s friends ran across that particular post and passed the link along to Mike, who was kind enough to send me a note.

I tried to reply to his e-mail, but got a return message saying that my message had been refused because the IP address of the mail server it came from was a “direct spam source.” The message provided a link to an anti-spam lookup page that let me know that my mail server “is being abused unchecked by spammers,” though it also said that the refusal did not imply that I was a spammer. I found that odd, since I don’t get spam e-mail anymore since I switched from Earthlink to iQuest. I mean that literally. I get no spam e-mail now. I used to get...I don’t know...five or six spam e-mails in my Earthlink inbox for every one e-mail that was actually valid. Just one of the many, many reasons that Earthlink sucks out loud. (“Sucks out loud,” by the way, is a fantastic phrase. Thanks, Josh.)

So anyway...to make a long story short, following is the text of the e-mail that I tried to send back to Mike - posted here on the off chance that Mike will wander into the Blog-O-Rama again at some point so he can discover that I was not ignoring the fact that he was nice enough to send me an e-mail out of the clear blue sky.

Hey Mike,

Thanks for the note, and for such a nice review of the band. Of all the different material you used to write for the Star/News, the rock music columns were always my favorite. I have a Rush poster from the Roll The Bones era, to which I have affixed a few different articles and clippings about them that I have collected over the years - that review of yours that I quoted was the first clipping to go on that poster.

I'm fascinated by the viral way that people pass information about blogs to one another, so I'd be curious - if you don't mind sharing the story - to find out how your friend happened upon my relatively anonymous little chunk of blogdom. Happy Holidays to you and yours, as well - and thanks again for the note.

(A bit of arcane John-O history: That Rush poster mentioned above? I bought it at Union Station during the Thanksgiving break of my freshman year at Indiana. Later that night a bunch of us gathered at a friend’s house to play a card game called Mr. Mao. At some point, an incredibly beautiful girl came in and sat down on the couch. Apparently she was with a guy, but I don’t recall that part. What I recall - verbatim - was the thought that ran through my head. “Damn. Now that girl’s out of my league.” Turned out not to be true, although I didn’t actually meet her until the following summer at a birthday party. The girl, of course, was Amy.)