E-mail interruptions hard to overcome (08/02/06)

Inspiration has to strike quickly before that incessant flashing starts again.

I'm trying to write this column on Mike Snyder's computer in his office off the newsroom, but the computer itself keeps interrupting me.

It has all week.

Mike took fair week off to spend with his daughters. That meant I was back in my old office at the desk I started working at almost 30 years ago.

Back then, of course, there was no computer on the desk. Instead, there was a manual typewriter along with a stack of copy paper.

The computer I'm working on is fine. Quick, smart, and probably able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. At any one moment when putting together the paper, I'll find myself working in more than half a dozen different softwares simultaneously.

Stories are written in one software, paginated in another. Some are downloaded from the Washington Post/LA Times web site in one browser software, while another browser software is required to download photos from the AP report. Meanwhile, there's Photoshop to deal with, along with Microsoft Word which is necessary to open a lot of attached e-mail files like press releases.

But the worst of them all - the cause of that incessant flashing - is our e-mail software, Outlook Express.

It's been set up to check for e-mail automatically about every 14 minutes. You never know when an obituary will be zipping its way over the Internet for today's paper.

Trouble is, most of what arrives in the e-mail basket isn't news. It's junk. And some of it is just plain weird.

I'm not talking about spam messages from Nigerian princes. I'm talking about political spiels and bozo business promotions.

A sampling:

•A press release on how fans can vote on what to get A-Rod for his birthday.

•A press kit complete with photos telling us what an exotic, sophisticated place downtown Indianapolis is.

•A free, self-syndicated column by a Palestinian with an ax to grind.

•Republican press releases beating up on Democrats.

•Democratic press releases beating up on Republicans.

•A press release titled, I am not making this up, "Chipotle's commitment to food with integrity strengthens supply chain for naturally raised meats."

Mixed in, unfortunately, are those obits we need, those letters to the editor we want, and those comments and suggestions we rely on.

But when the flashing in the corner of the screen starts - there it goes again - telling me there's new e-mail, it's hard to ignore.

If I don't check, it'll turn out to be something important. If I do check, it will be something new about Chipotle.[[In-content Ad]]