Well, for the second month Chad fails to take first place, and in fact drops to third place. Al, with his new email address and computer at home just keeps coming on strong. Rebecca, as usual, is not far behind. Chad's star seems to be falling at the moment though. We shall see if he returns to his previous grandeur.
In the mean time, the usual players were hanging around in the lower parts of the top ten list just hanging out and having fun. But out of the blue their appeared a new player. It began with this statement:
"Would you happen to know offhand the record for the highest debut on your list? Maybe I can shoot for that one. I would go for the #1 spot, but the several hundred that are usually necessary to get that just seems out of reach..."
After this person looked through all the results on the website, he said:
"Rеnata Gorman debuted with 138 in 6/98. Now that I think about it though, it's not so tough to beat. That's it Sam: Rеnata Gorman with 138 in 6/98. Who is Rеnata Gorman & what kind of name is Rеnata? Anyway, her record is going down. That's all there is to it. I'm going to do 138 easy."
And then he proceeded to email away, attempting to beat Rеni's record debut on the web...
This person made one error however. The top ten list is of course not a list of the top ten PEOPLE sending me email, but is rather a list of the top ten EMAIL ADDRESSES sending me email. While Rеni was indeed the one who premiered on the list with the highest number of messages, there was another email address that did better on its first appearance. When Chad switched email addresses from cnh2r@watt.seas.virginia.edu to cnh2r@virginia.edu, cnh2r@virginia.edu premiered with 141 messages, just nosing out Rеni's total.
But hey, that's only a three message difference... did the mystery newcomer beat the record?
He certainly tried hard enough, sending me lots of message gems like:
"why are women so proud of themselves when they get pregnant? Like its such a big accomplishment? I hate that. I really want to congratulate them for it; being one of only a couple billion fertile women on earth."
"why are these hurricanes always such big news items? Let me make a prediction, way ahead to the year 2000.. Sometime starting in late august, going on for a couple months, there will be several hurricanes developed in the caribbean or thereabouts, some of which will threaten the US coast. How's that for a daring prediction? Anyway, my point is, why do I always have to be bombarded with this stuff on the news. It's not news, because everybody knows it's going to happen anyway, and it doesn't affect me. So give me some real news. Let's hear about how Clinton hummed and hawed over this Indonesia thing. And why not, his friends there paid for his election, he owes them one."
"Sam, what's the deal with the birds? I always thought they were the stupidest pet. And you know how some animal rights wackos think that having any pet is cruel.. Of course i don't agree with that, but birds are the closest thing to it. Keeping them locked up in that tiny little cage. What kind of life is that. Especially for a bird that would normally fly and be free and all that."
And many others of similar quality. They were most entertaining, as emails from this person... or plan file installments... always are. Yup, that's right. Randy Griffith has made his debut on the Top Ten list... with a total of 148 messages... which indeed, by a hair, beats the previous records both by person and by email address, for a debut on the list. Congratulations Randy and welcome to the list.
| Rank | Total | Name | Address |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 239 | Al Michael | apmichael@earthlink.net |
| 2 | 204 | Rebecca Livingston | Rebaroni@aol.com |
| 3 | 182 | Chad Hunter | cnh2r@virginia.edu |
| 4 | 148 | Randall Griffith | rando@lmf.net |
| 5 | 122 | Ron Adams | bat13@westol.com |
| 6 | 61 | Iván Bou | ivanbou@compuserve.com |
| 7 | 50 | Barbara Christman | MOOSE8168@aol.com |
| 8 | 39 | Chris Morrow | morrowc@his.com |
| 9 | 38 | Carrie Opheim | OpheimCJ@msx.upmc.edu |
| 10 | 33 | Kyle Long | kyle.d.long@usa.net |
| Aug | Oct |