Jerry Lee & Spam — A Connection. Believe it!

Each evening, from December to December/ Before you drift to sleep upon your cot/ Think back on all the tales that you remember/ Of Spamalot.

Apologies to Richard Burton. Couldn’t help myself.

Actually before I get to my rant — which is about email spam — my favorite story about “Camelot.” At least peripheral to “Camelot.” It’s actually about Jerry Lee Lewis.

Lewis played a dinner theater in Simpsonville, Kentucky sometime in the early to mid 70’s. The show playing at that time, but obviously not that night, was “Camelot.” The set wasn’t struck for the concert.

You never know what you’re going to get at a Jerry Lee Lewis concert. He could be on and marvelous. Like the recording, “Live at the Star Club .” Or drunk, obnoxious and unlistenable.

So Jerry Lee is introduced. He’s in fighting trim and struts on the stage like a banty rooster. He’s wearing a prop crown from “Camelot.” After a few steps toward his piano, a voice yells out, “The Killer is back.” Lewis stops, does a double take and sneers, “The Killer . . . never left.”

If you’re a rock & roll junkie like me, it was a great moment.

* * * * *

Okay, let’s talk about today’s subject — spam.

Insightbb.com is my broadband internet server. As any who use that service know, last summer and autumn was a nightmare for those of us addicted to email.

The company switched to their own servers before they were properly programmed. It was awful. Eventually they got it right, but it took so long they actually gave rebates to customers. Not reasonable rebates, but rebates nonetheless.

Things went along smoothly for awhile.

Starting in December, despite filters, I — and a lot of others in the cybergalaxy — started getting an inordinate amount of spam.

Then, last week, the email problems started again. I’d write an email. When I tried to send it, the correspondence would either take 15-30 seconds to send, or insightbb.com’s email servers wouldn’t take it all. If sent it took a long time, sometimes hours, to get to its destination.

Without belaboring the story, it turns out there is so much spam being dumped on the internet that it is overwhelming the servers of some internet service providers.

Including mine, damn it.

Which adversely affects normal citizens’ ability to send and receive their email.

The problem is not going away.

Junk mail might ruin the instant communication that many of us have become so used to.

My web site geeks tell me my personal spam problem may partially be as the result of finding myself in somebody’s address book which has been harvested by a spam bot. Which is why I hate to get forwarded emails that some well-meaning pal has sent along to 75 or so of their most close and personal friends, who have forwarded it, etc., etc, until my personal email address is in the address books of about a thousand computers of people I’ve never met.

Anyhow the point is this. Be wary. Use spam filters on your email clients. Be prudent. If you send an email to a lot of folks, use bcc (blind carbon copy) for their addresses.

So there’s my rant.

Hope you found it informative. Or entertaining. Or both.

* * * * *

As for Jerry Lee Lewis. Well, his latest album, “Last Man Standing,” rocks a lot dang harder than one could possibly expect from an old fart.

And the Ferriday, Louisiana native is a headliner and on the poster for the 2007 New Orleans JazzFest, coming up at the end of April and early May.

Since I’m as addicted to that music event more than email, you’ll be hearing more about that in the upcoming weeks.

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