I treasure the comments that this blog receives, almost as much as I value the friends and relatives that make these comments.  As much as I love your comments though there is a dark side to the blogging biz that I have never shared with any of you, until now.  I’m speaking of course about spam comments, but of a better class of spam than you might be familiar with.  No Canadian pharmaceuticals have been advertised here.  Especially no Viagra spam.  No, these spam comments are much more homespun.  WordPress has a facility, Akismet, that corrals all of this spam and every few days or so I press one button and they all disappear.  All nice and neat, but just as showbiz routinely turns inward and creates a play within a play, so does yours truly blogger here also find himself getting introspective.  Here are just a dozen of the several dozen spam comments that Akismet has intercepted in the last few days:

• You are a very clever individual! – Pink Lingerie [ooh, lá lá!]
• Hey y’all make sure you check out www [that really narrows it down]
• Wow! This blog is sick! How did you make it look like this!? [complement?]
• I seriously enjoyed reading your site. Wonderful material and i’m sure i’m not the first person who finds it exceptionally beneficial. [well, actually]
• You are a very capable individual! [don’t, please stop; please, don’t stop]
• fnyi84x3q5rw1w7txx7410jl1 [garbled? spam from another planet?]
• Your blog has been the highlight of my day. – Colon Cleanser [sheeat!]
• I adore this blog site layout! How do you make it!? It’s very nice! [when I catch them, I grind up the spammers into a fine paste, then I …]
• Well, all things considered… [luv the radio show! don’t get the comment?]
• You made some good points there. I did a search on the topic and found most persons will consent with your site. [Umm, I’m married, you know?]
• I really enjoyed this blog. It’s nice when you read something that is not only informative but entertaining. Greet! [you almost had me there]
• питательная маска + для рук [wait for it, … looks like Greek to me!]

I should apologize to the Hormel people for using as a graphic for this post, a picture of their product’s label.  But the duality of spam has been around for decades, meat product and internet trash.  I believe that as that sage of modern American publicity once said, “There is no such thing as bad press, it is all just press.”  So I defer to that goddess of publicity, Mae West, and I refer Hormel to her also.  So how did the word spam transition from meat to internet?  Sounds like another blogging opportunity.

Folks, I’m back on the morning shift again, where I belong.  I’m getting too old for doing those evening posts.  See you again tomorrow morning.