Ross Guinane’s Post

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Excuse the spam; this guy’s gone phishing! Somewhat ironically, as I compile this, May 3 actually marks the day in 1978 that the first ever “spam” email was sent. Delivered to 393 email addresses, the message, advertising a new computer, was, much like many of my musings, received poorly. Spam (not the food) has evolved since then, of course, with suspicious and malicious money-making mails scamming the susceptible out of many a sheckle. Fortunately, I’m no fool, forming a backup plan for any future dupe, thanks to my second name being the same as that of a dead Nigerian prince who’s most loyal advisor wants to share his $43 million windfall with. Sign me up! May 3 is also World Press Freedom Day, by the way, and has been since 1993, which, for a rambunctious brand-new teen in 'Ninety-Three, meant I was no longer sheltered from the arresting big breaking news of the time; like that of Edilber Guimaraes, who was knicked for attempted theft at a glue factory. When he stole a break to take high-inducing sniffs, he knocked over two large cans, only to be found by police 36 hours later glued to the floor. I was pretty quick to throw out my Pritt Stick after reading of poor gluebag Edilber. You'll never take my freedom!!! In some corners, less dark, more unknown, today is a date to celebrate the mysteries of the unexplainable – Happy Paranormal Day, weirdos! The first ghost story on record is attributed to tiny Pliny, a first century AD Roman author and statesman who reported that the spectre of an old man with a long beard and rattling chains was haunting his house in Athens. The beheaded second wife of King Henry VIII, and mother of Queen Elizabeth I, Anne Boleyn – accused of witchcraft, treason, incest and adultery – has, too, frequently been sighted in apparition form since the 16th century. Author Mark Twain – who wrote about Huckleberry Finn, and Tom Sawyer, not to mention The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County – is another wraith believed to haunt the stairwell of his onetime New York apartment building, while the phantom of poet Dylan Thomas is said to sometimes occupy his usual corner table at his local tavern, where he drank a fatal 18 shots of scotch in one sitting. Lightweight! Seems ghost writers are rather common, with many a tale still to tell after retiring from this life. I’m no stranger to the paranormal myself. Countless times I’ve seen my money and memories disappear without reason, with unexplained appearances of my previous night’s alcohol-fuelled ill behaviour all over social media. Utterly bizarre! #Spam #PressFreedomDay #ParanormalDay #GhostStories

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