Die, recipe chain letter! Die!
I have received the dreaded recipe exchange chain letter no less than eight (8) times. The first time was back in July; the most recent? Today. Let’s analyze why I hate this letter with a passion bordering on madness!
- It is a chain letter. It wants me to forward it to 20 of my friends. No. I don’t have 20 bosom friends that would accept this e-mail from me once, let alone multiple times. Also, knock off 8 of that twenty, because did I mention I received this thing 8 times?!
- It wants me to send e-mails to people I don’t know. Ugh. I’ve sent a few accompanied by charming, yet concise intros. I don’t receive any responses. It’s sending recipes into a void.
- It wants me to send recipes that are “quick, easy and without rare ingredients”. If someone isn’t willing to work for delicious food I don’t see any reason to go through my rollodex looking for some miracle recipe… for the lazy and unadventurous. Zing!
- There is a time limit. Five days to be exact. No pressure, right?
- Guilt, guilt, guilt! “If you cannot do this within 5 days, let me know so it will be fair to those participating. [...] Seldom does anyone drop out because we can all use new recipes.” Um, how about you die in a fire, chain letter!
- It is impersonal, so no one is going to make all these recipes. They’ll receive 36 if everything goes as planned. Thirty six recipes not tailored to one’s tastes, supplies, or dietary restrictions. Maybe I should only send my garlic escargot recipe to undermine the letter.
My favorite version of the letter, from my sister Jen, is also the most recent. It strips away most (but not all) of the offensive points above and includes the caveat “feel free to delete.” I think the demoniac chain letter will now probably have to destroy her utterly in order to continue propagating.
one guess who got the exact same chain email in her inbox tonight.
ugh. ugh ugh.
I’m glad you posted this! Chain letters, in all their forms are manipulative junk, including the recipe ones. I wish all of my contacts would realize what’s going on and do what I always tell them to do, break the blasted thing already. And there are recipe chains that don’t circulate by email but are chain letters nonetheless. That Amish friendship bread for example. There are others as well, but I can’t think of them right now. I’m just fine with friends giving me goodies and sending me recipes, but definitely not when any hint that I’m supposed to pass them on to x number of people, or to everyone, no thanks. Blech.