Friday, January 23, 2009

Pop-up Quiz

Recently, I was at a Joseph Heller web site, deeply immersed in a discussion of Milo Minderbinder's place in literary history, when I suddenly noticed something in the lower right hand corner of the screen. It wasn't part of the site since it had nothing to do with Catch 22. Here's what it said:

TEST YOUR IQ

CLICK HERE

I thought to myself, hey, it'd be kinda cool to know my IQ, so I clicked .

Ever since I clicked, a box has popped on to the screen every ten seconds asking me to, variously, try a new anti-wrinkle cream, take advice on how to pass a civil service exam, give a gold-plated pendent to that very special person, join a health club, try liposuction, dine at a new Chinese restaurant in a city I never heard of, take pills that will cleanse my body of impurities, buy a Humvee, rent a condo on the shores of Lake Huron, and buy a mousetrap that glows in the dark.

I think I flunked the test.

3 comments:

  1. Look at the ABOUT ME section of the blog.

    I ain't kidding when I describe myself as an "on-line Luddite"!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm thinking of reposting this piece of doggeral, and, re-reading it, noticed that my comment is dated. I no longer describe myself as an "on-line Luddite" in the ABOUT ME section. I hasten to say I still AM an online Luddite, I just no longer find it worth bragging about.

    ReplyDelete

In order to keep the hucksters, humbugs, scoundrels, psychos, morons, and last but not least, artificial intelligentsia at bay, I have decided to turn on comment moderation. On the plus side, I've gotten rid of the word verification.