This past year, my gmail account has been getting an increasing number of SPAM messages from China. But I understand the Chinese authorities have blocked off gmail since Dec 28. I hadn't noticed but Chinese 'offers' have disappeared. Bob Wilson
I noticed spam volume at my primary filter -- all spam, not just any one language -- collapsing deeply just before the New Year, then slowly rebuilding since. When clearing out a secondary spam folder yesterday, about a month's accumulation, a sort revealed that of a couple dozen Chinese language items, only one was dated this year.
I actually like my SPAM. I understand that SPAM burgers are popular in some markets (not sure about China).
Horse tastes good... The Dog I had in Korea was tasty too... I haven't had any Cat... that I know of, even though one of the asian restaurants I ate from near the DMV downtown was cited for having cat skeletons in their dumpster.
Email spam isn't like a postmarked piece of mail. It doesn't have to come from China to be from China.
Dog gives me gout, unfortunately. I like it, but it's just not worth it. I haven't had an attack of gout in four or five years, but dog is up there with port on my list of things I really need to avoid if I don't want my toe to swell up to the size of the rest of my foot, and live in terrible pain for a week. Other things - lamb, venison, Chinese mushrooms, red wine, etc - are fine as long as I only have them occasionally, and only in moderation. But dog and port are both a disaster. Horse isn't that exotic if you've ever eaten a cheap lasagne in Britain. But I've had horse steaks in France, and they were nice - kind of like a half-way point between beef and kangaroo. I honestly don't think I could eat cat. I've had several pet cats, and I do really like them.
In Australia, I've heard rumours that spam is very popular in some Pacific Islands, as it tastes a bit like person. I am not sure if this is true. If it is, I'm horrified to think that I taste that bland.
This is odd. From what I can see (based on the experiences of my staff and my friends), there's no problem with Chinese people sending e-mail to or receiving e-mail from people with Gmail addresses. Their only problem is that they can't access their own Gmail services. So I don't see that the move would have particularly affected your spam: they can use lots of other providers - Hotmail and Yahoo are unaffected, as are domestic services like 126 and 163. Quite a lot of Chinese people are on holiday at the moment, because the weather in Northern China is so horrible at this time of year. Maybe they're just too busy on a beach in Thailand to bother sending out spam.
Yes, our relationship has been on a purely non-gastronomic basis. When I say I've "had" several pet cats, I should perhaps have said "owned" or "lived with". I've had several dogs, but the "had" means something entirely different there, in much the same way as I've had several plates of pasta. Similarly I like cats like I like people (and the meaning of like there should be clear, given that I don't like Spam). But I like dogs like I like chicken.
One of my favorite great uncles who could have come out of the HBO series "Deadwood" and his wife thought fried spam on white bread with mayonnaise and a piece of lettuce and slice of tomato was 'high living.' But we were miracle whip people and couldn't stand the mayonnnaise. Mayonnaise is what miricle whip turns into if the lid is left off and it sits forgotten in the back to fridge until it grows a coating of black mold. Bob Wilson
