Fun_People Archive
26 Jun
A Banner Day, in case you missed it

Date: Sun, 26 Jun 94 01:30:19 PDT
To: Fun_People
Subject: A Banner Day, in case you missed it

From: Dave@yost.com (Dave Yost)

Today's latest example of worldwide broadcast black humor
made me laugh out loud.

We old-timers can remember getting only a few email mailing list
messages a day.  Now the number of announcements per day of whole
new newsgroups dwarfs the number of messages per day we used to get,
and the titles of those newsgroups have become the latest in devious
broadcast communication media.

In case you don't read usenet, or you run a GUI usenet reader
that doesn't work quite like the classic glass TTY usenet readers,
you missed the latest escalation in information bombardment.
Today's list of new newsgroups looked something like this:

  ucb.cs.soda-move
  su.class.comm177h
  alt.fan.actors
  alt.religion.zoroastrianism
  alt.culture.zippies
  cle.flame
  alt.revolution.cnog
  alt.magick.ethics
  aus.education.open-learning
  aus.acs.books
  aus.cars
  aus.org.efa
  aus.org.sage
  alt.tim.pitts.flame.jg
  alt.music.producer
  aus.acs
  alt.music.yes
  aus.bushwalking
  aus.net.directory.quipu
  alt.steinberg.cubase
  bionet.microbiology
  alt.fan.art-bell
  alt.tv.robocop
  bionet.molec-model
  bionet.jobs.wanted
  esnet.divertors
  ia.org.freenet
  alt.tv.real-world
  alt.music.sophie-hawkins
  alt.sports.hockey.nhl.phila-flyers
  alt.att.a.---X---.XXXXXXX.--XX---.XXXXXXX
  alt.att.b.--X-X--.---X---.-X--X--.---X---
  alt.att.c.-X---X-.---X---.--XX---.---X---
  alt.att.d.X-----X.---X---.-XXX---.---X---
  alt.att.e.XXXXXXX.---X---.X---X-X.---X---
  alt.att.f.X-----X.---X---.X----X-.---X---
  alt.att.g.X-----X.---X---.-XXXX-X.---X---
  alt.att.h.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------
  alt.att.i.X-----X.XXXXXXX.X-----X.-------.X-----X.--XXX--.X------.X------
  alt.att.j.-X---X-.X-----X.X-----X.-------.X--X--X.---X---.X------.X------
  alt.att.k.--X-X--.X-----X.X-----X.-------.X--X--X.---X---.X------.X------
  alt.att.l.---X---.X-----X.X-----X.-------.X--X--X.---X---.X------.X------
  alt.att.m.---X---.X-----X.X-----X.-------.X--X--X.---X---.X------.X------
  alt.att.n.---X---.X-----X.X-----X.-------.X--X--X.---X---.X------.X------
  alt.att.o.---X---.XXXXXXX.-XXXXX-.-------.-XX-XX-.--XXX--.XXXXXXX.XXXXXXX

We can only guess what was to come next and how it was choked off.

Perhaps it was something catchy like die, die, die, or suck, suck, suck.

 Dave Yost

© 1994 Peter Langston