My dad forwards me a lot of those funny emails. Some of these are chuckle-worthy:

#10 Golfer: “I Think I’m going to drown myself in the lake.”
Caddy: “Think you can keep your head down that long?”

#9 Golfer: “I’d move heaven and earth to break 100 on this course.”
Caddy: “Try heaven, you’ve already moved most of the earth.”

#8 Golfer: “Do you think my game is improving?”
Caddy: “Yes sir, you miss the ball much closer now.”

#1 Golfer: “That can’t be my ball, it’s too old.”
Caddy: “It’s been a long time since we teed off, sir.”

Mark Woods curiously apostrophe-less blog, wood s lot is the blog I’d most like to have with me on a desert island (coming through port eighty into my magically wireless connected browser, I suppose). Last night I was talking with another bloggist, a woman who is no slouch when it comes to write-aciousness and brains, talking about the brilliant creative minds and the dedicated authorial spirits in the blogosphere. Mark Woods name was near the top of our lists. Mark’s work at Woods Lot never fails to inform, never fails to nurture the spirit, always sets the mind ablaze with new directions for inquiry, and often buttresses the sure and certain knowledge that there is great evil afoot in the world, and great good. Happy Birthday Mark! You reflect so much that is so important to all of us, I’m proud to be a virtual associate. I’m pleased to be acknowledged in your sidebar. Sometimes I cruise by your place and you have some deep exploration going on that makes me wonder “who is this guy?” I think of you in your over the garage gluation and scissorology scriptorium and I know that you go back to the days of paste-up, like me, and I wish I knew you better. Again, Happy Birthday and please allow me to raise a glass in toast…

What are we for? What are we against? After I spammed a bunch of my friends with an urgent call to activism in support of network neutrality principles, one wrote back as follows:

I don’t see here what bill exactly, we are objecting to. Is it a house bill? a senate bill? what’s the number? Government web sites are time consuming in the best of circumstances, but it’s much easier to find bill wording if we have a number. Do you have it? if you do, and you send it to me, I will look into the issue further. Before I write congresspersons, I need to read the bill.

How embarrassing. I think the bathwater is just the right temperature, but what have we done with the baby? Wait… it must be around here somewhere. (Blogger rustles through stacks of old Network World’s and New Yorker magazines…) Ahh… here it is, from the Save the Internet FAQ: Congress is now considering a major overhaul of the Telecommunications Act. The primary bill in the House is called the “Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act of 2024″ and is sponsored by Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-Texas), Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), Rep. Charles Pickering (R-Miss.) and Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.).

The current version of the COPE Act includes watered-down net neutrality provisions that are essentially meaningless. An amendment offered in a key subcommittee by Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), which would have instituted real net neutrality requirements, was defeated after intense industry lobbying against it.

But it’s not too late yet. A full committee vote on the measure — and another opportunity to save the Internet — could happen as soon as April 26.The Senate is moving more deliberately on the issue. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has introduced the Internet Nondiscrimination Act of 2024, which would ensure net neutrality. And Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Byron Dorgan (R-N.D.) are expected to introduce a bipartisan amendment supporting net neutrality when the Senate takes up its own rewrite of the Telecommunications Act later this year.But neither chamber will support the free and open Internet without widespread public pressure. To keep the Internet free and open, Congress needs to hear from millions of Americans right now.