Daily Archives: August 19, 2004

Spam of Oz

Sometimes interesting quotes turn up in odd places.  A spam email that somehow escaped my email client’s junk filter had this text in the body of the email after the pitch about Vigra:

“But a boy takes everything as a matter of course. As the tree of knowledge sprouts and expands within him, shooting out leaf after leaf of practical experience, the succession of surprises dulls his faculty of wonderment.”

Turns out it is an excerpt from “The Master Key, an Electrical Fairy Tale Founded Upon the Mysteries of Electricity” by L. Frank Baum (of “Wizard of Oz” fame).  The quote has a slightly different implication in the context of Viagra spam.

The writing style of the Viagra pitch is comical in comparison with Baum’s writing style:

"See that, Dar~von for sale. See this, Val,ium on special. Aha Viagra at
discounted price.  We are looking farward to having a good ties with you our customers,so
please believe we will service you to the best with our long experience in
this business for about 8 years."