Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder

29 Oct 2001, 20:23 p.m.

I just received a spam...wait, is "spam" a collective noun,…

Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2001 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.

I just received a spam...wait, is "spam" a collective noun, like "water" or "meat," or some item, like "can" or "book"?

Anyway, I received an unsolicited commercial e-mail advertising life insurance. One line: "Attention All Smokers, you may qualify for special reduced smoker rates!" Shouldn't smokers, since they die earlier and thus pay in less money in premiums (premia?) before they cash out, have higher rates? Are the actuaries completely out to lunch on this deal?