Spam, and an obscure Star Trek reference

by Charles Miller on January 11, 2004

I've started getting lots of spam with similar-looking subject-lines. Luckily, this makes them easy for me to filter out even when Mail.app misses them:

  • Re: JHAL, dropping the ladle
  • Re: ZOQRLR, somewhere far away
  • Re: XEBK, where's the devil
  • Re: GIWOVHU, wishes! for success!
  • Re: HVRV, last prisoners were

The recovering Star Trek TNG nerd in me is waiting for:

  • Re: SOKATH, His eyes open!
  • Re: SHAKA, When the walls fell

and, of course

  • Re: DARMOK, and Jalad at Tanagra.

(Yes, I had to look the exact phrases up. I'm not that much of a Star Trek nerd)

Addendum

This particular episode of TNG stuck in my mind because the premise always annoyed me. Supposedly, the Universal Translator couldn't understand what this race were saying because they spoke entirely in metaphor. Huh? Since when has any language been anything but a metaphor? No word is its subject, words are all indirect references: metaphors. Ceci n'est pas une pipe and all that.

Previously: Complexity: The mysterious 'whoamI' command.

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