Do you remember opening up AOL, and hearing that wonderful voice crooning “You’ve Got Mail” I’m sure that like me, this sound filled your heart with a little touch of Christmas joy. Sadly, most of the time when you opened your mail box you would be greeted not with exciting news from someone you cared about, but instead with one of dozens of frustratingly popular chain letters.

I wouldn’t call you superstitious, but how many of us haven’t passed one or two of these along in our day? For anyone who still occasionally feels the urge to shill good luck through the power of chain mail, here is your cure — a Twelve Step program from the people at the Joke Archive.

The Steps

Here are a few of my favorites,

8. There is NO kid with cancer through the Make-a-Wish program in England collecting anything! He did when he was 7 years old. He is now cancer free and 35 years old and DOESN’T WANT ANY MORE POST CARDS, or GET-WELL CARDS.

9. The government does not have a bill in Congress called 901B (or whatever they named it this week) that, if passed, will enable them to charge us 5 cents for every e-mail we send.

11. The American Red Cross will NOT donate 50 cents to certain individual dying of some never-heard-of disease for every e-mail address I send this to. The American Red Cross RECEIVES donations.

Web 2.0 Roundup

Even though I haven’t actually received a chain letter in about half a decade, this article really brought me back. What was the best chain letter you ever received? Personally, I loved the ones that said that AOL was going to start charging a fee for every IM. Ah, those were the days.

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