The "Kook File" started as a way to keep track of these letters and emails so I could refer back to them when I needed a laugh. But it also has a darker purpose. I figure if I disappear mysteriously someday the police are going to want some leads. So my next-of-kin are aware of the presence of the Kook File and what to do with it if I don't come home from the grocery store one day.

Few of these letters and emails are actually threatening. All of them, though, are bizarre in the extreme. I wonder, "What kind of person would waste their time sending me something like this?" I thought you all might enjoy seeing these, so maybe I'll post a few from time to time. Here's the latest:

From: Manmeet Kingra

YOUR website is crap! The 3d images arnt 3d!!! you just put up 2 pictures?????? and your website is boring!!!!!!!!!!!! :-(

From: Craig

Your email is crap!! You don't know how to spell!! If you can't see the 3-D it's because you don't know how to read!! AND your email is boring!!

OK so I might have been inviting trouble, but think about it... who sends an email like that off to a perfect stranger? What makes someone's personal Web site so offensive that a viewer feels compelled to write such random comments? My response was simply to write back in the same "style". More often than not, this provokes an apology from the sender, who will say they had a bad day or their dog died or they forgot to take their meds. Here's what came back:

From: Manmeet Kingra

So what, yourwhole website is rubbish and you look like your 92! so shut up! You said send in comments to help in prove your website so that is what my DAUGHTER did, she only found your website when on google she was looking for castles, she went on your website and only sent a message , it ment no harm< and i dont think your email was an encouraging thing to say ,you could of kindly explained how to see the 3d image properly!!!!!

From: Craig

Did you read your dauther's email to me? She sent a complete stranger an unnecessarily insulting email. There were no "comments to help improve my Web site". I used a sophisticated literary device called "parody" to send a tongue-in-cheek reply. Instead of apologizing for her abhorent behavior, you follow up with more of the same vitriol. Your family needs to get a life... spending your precious and limited days looking for people on the Web to say nasty things to is not the path to a rewarding life.

In the spirit of not wasting time, I'll not reply to any further emails from you unless the next one is an apology.

From: Manmeet Kingra

Well its not apology, so go stuff your self, im not emailing you any more oldy!!!

I don't have anything in my experience to compare this to. I wonder how this person gets by in life. And how weird is it to insult someone by telling them they look old?

Anyway this one was particularly entertaining so I thought I'd post it. It's firmly ensconced in the Kook File for future investigation should the need arise. :-)