jcp@osiris.UUCP (Jody Patilla) (04/30/85)
> Last week I received the chain-letter which I have enclosed below. > If it has been around as long as is claimed, several of you people > out there must have seen it. Any comments or personal experiences? > I think it is disgusting, I don't mind getting some luck and > happiness, but being threatened with all sorts of horrors and > unhappiness if I don't sent the letter along, STINKS. > I can't really figure out if one sends such a letter to friends > or enemies. > A letter very similar to this actually showed up in our office about two weeks ago. One of our secretaries thoughtfully foisted her 20 copies onto the rest of us (right before she left for Germany). It's not the first time I've seen it - it made the rounds of my home town around 10 years ago. I routinely rip such things up and throw them away. Actually, the best chain-letter I've ever seen is a joke. It tells women who are dissatified with their husbands to send him to the first name on the list, add their names to the bottom, and send out ten copies. "One woman got 2 dozen great guys this way. She died but it took 6 undertakers 3 days to get the smile off her face. Another woman broke the chain and got her own son-of-a-bitch back." -- jcpatilla "'Get stuffed !', the Harlequin replied ..."
sea@browngr.UUCP (Scott E. Anderson) (05/01/85)
I got a copy of that letter (or one roughly the same; it was a while ago) sometime last year. I just threw it out and I think I'm still fine... -- Scott E. Anderson brunix!browngr!sea
jeffw@tekecs.UUCP (Jeff Winslow) (05/01/85)
I got a letter something like this in the mail about 4-5 years back. It gave me the greatest pleasure, after reading all about the horrible things that would happen to me if I didn't pass it on, to throw it out immediately. (I was thinking about sending it to some postal authorities and local government types, but decided not to since my motives might be mistaken.) When you consider how easy it is to make up a letter like this and send it, it's amazing so many people (apparently) fall for it. Of course, I'm still working for a living, so maybe I had bad luck after all. :-) Workers arise! You have nothing to lose but your chain-letters... Jeff Winslow
hutch@shark.UUCP (Stephen Hutchison) (05/01/85)
In article <822@erix.UUCP> goran@erix.UUCP (Goeran Baage) writes: >Last week I received the chain-letter which I have enclosed below. >If it has been around as long as is claimed, several of you people >out there must have seen it. Any comments or personal experiences? >I think it is disgusting, I don't mind getting some luck and >happiness, but being threatened with all sorts of horrors and >unhappiness if I don't sent the letter along, STINKS. >I can't really figure out if one sends such a letter to friends >or enemies. > Goeran Baage That is one of the oldest chain letters. I got the thing, and burned it, and yelled at the person who sent it to me for trying to pass a curse (she was, as you would expect, very superstitious.) Chain letters are against the law in the United States. If you get such a thing with a US postmark, contact the postmaster for the central office indicated by the postmark. They actively prosecute people who send such things. Hutch
davew@shark.UUCP (Dave Williams) (05/01/85)
In article <822@erix.UUCP> goran@erix.UUCP (Goeran Baage) writes: >Last week I received the chain-letter which I have enclosed below. >If it has been around as long as is claimed, several of you people >out there must have seen it. Any comments or personal experiences? >I think it is disgusting, I don't mind getting some luck and >happiness, but being threatened with all sorts of horrors and >unhappiness if I don't sent the letter along, STINKS. >I can't really figure out if one sends such a letter to friends >or enemies. > >I personally will not send any copies around, others than the >N copies I now sneak on to you Netlanders (much >more than 20 copies - should bring me eternal luck :-}). > >The following chain-letter text has been translated from a >partly unreadable Swedish copy (no doubt it has been translated to >and from many languages - is the original meaning still there, >I find it hard to believe that a missionary would write something >like this?). > > Goeran Baage It seems to me a Christian Missionary would talk about faith and blessings instead of luck. These sort of letters use to circulate in the US quite a bit until they were made illegal. I do not know of any scripture in the Bible that requires a person to forward a letter within 95 hours or be cursed. I received several of these letters a number of years ago and did nothing. I am still at Tek (a blessing or a curse? :-)). Burn it. -- Dave Williams Tektronix, Inc. Graphic Workstations Division "The 6000 Family" "The workstations that made Wilsonville famous."
kurt@fluke.UUCP (Kurt Guntheroth) (05/02/85)
I believe I have seen this letter twice in the past few years. Once it
was stuffed into my box in the graduate student lounge, and later I saw a
similar-but-degraded copy in my mailbox at work (which caused a loud noise
from the corporation, I can assure you). You may also remember an annoying
posting of a chain letter on ARPANET that caused a storm (since ARPANET was
then owned by DoD and is not supposed to be used for chain letters).
This letter bears much resemblence to the earlier ones I received, although
now it is maybe 30% of the length of the original and certain spellings have
been destroyed. The dollar amounts and portions of some of the episodes
have changed a bit, too, but some of it is the same. We can only hope that
the entire letter soon suffers critical bit decay and dies.
--
Kurt Guntheroth
John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc.
{uw-beaver,decvax!microsof,ucbvax!lbl-csam,allegra,ssc-vax}!fluke!kurtsra@oddjob.UUCP (Scott R. Anderson) (05/05/85)
In article <> sea@sluggo.UUCP (Scott E. Anderson) writes: > >I got a copy of that letter (or one roughly the same; it was a while ago) >sometime last year. I just threw it out and I think I'm still fine... > > Scott E. Anderson > brunix!browngr!sea He may not realize it, but he was cloned once for each of the letters he failed to send out (:-). Scott R. Anderson ihnp4!oddjob!sra
davis@hplabs.UUCP (Jim Davis) (05/11/85)
> Last week I received the chain-letter which I have enclosed below. > . . . Interestingly, chain-letters will only be sent by people who either are stupid, or very selfish. Before you get into a tiff, please allow me to say, that that conclusion is independent of either the validity of the luck/curse that they are said to bring, or even one's belief in that luck/curse. Either the recipient believes(B) or disbelieves(D) in the effectiveness of the chain. Either the chain actually works(w) or it is a failure(f). Let us examine the possibilities. Let us suppose that a reward of value r is promised, or a curse of value -c. We shall also use the default chain replication factor of 20 (chains want one to send 20 copies out). I assume from having received too many of these cursed(see following mathematics) things that 19c>r. That is to say, the curse is never a mere trifle when compared with the reward offered. The chain must be continued within h hours or the curse is inflicted. (We leave for the moment the case in which h is unbounded from above.) Bw: If it works and you believe in it, then you are heartless and cruel to send out 20 copies of the letter. The rewards promised do not outweigh the necessity of inflicting the curse upon 19 people for each one rewarded. This is clearly required. Suppose that ONLY 18 people are cursed and 2 blessed on the average. In order to sustain that level of blessing the number of active letters must double every h hours. Since there is a finite amount of paper in the world this is impossible. Hence, if 19c>r then you are selfish and thinking of your own reward while foisting off 19 curses on others(often chains ask you to send this "luck" to FRIENDS)! Bf: If it is a fraud yet you believed in it, not only did you act heartlessly toward those you sent copies to, you didn't even get the reward! Dw: If you don't believe in it, why propagate an illegal, senseless (to you) chain letter. Even if you might have -- say, just on a whim -- the mathematics will convince you not to. Those who you send it to may believe in it -- in which case you have cursed 95% of them, or they may not believe it. Then you have merely inconvenienced them. Df: See previous argument. ----------------------------------------------------------------