# Look, cow-orker, I'd love to help the child IF SHE EXISTED!! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 28, 2004, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-cow-orker-id-love-to-help-the-child-if-she-existed/282016 "2004-12-28T22:42:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Greywolf73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d9b06d/32.png) [@Greywolf73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greywolf73)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2004, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-cow-orker-id-love-to-help-the-child-if-she-existed/282016/21 "2004-12-29T17:47:01Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Stuff like this makes me think we’re fighting a hopeless war against ignorance. People don’t want the fucking truth. Oh boy, isn’t that the, err, truth. A friend of mine forwarded me the infamous “Bill Gates will pay you to forward this email!” email the other day, along with the comment, “I know this might not be true but I’m taking 60 seconds out of my busy day to pass this along on the off-chance that it might be true…blah, blah, blah”. I immediately sent him a link to the Snopes debunking on the Bill Gates email and he fired back with the indignant reply, “I told you I didn’t WANT to know if it was real or not!” as if I’d spoiled all his fun and wasted his initial 60 seconds forwarding the stupid email. It would have taken him less than 60 seconds to check out the story for himself on snopes in the first place! Besides that, I know I’ve debunked that particular strain of email hoax to him before anyway. Arrggh. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2004, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-cow-orker-id-love-to-help-the-child-if-she-existed/282016/22 "2004-12-29T18:31:08Z")
[hijack] Cow-orker. Is that a joke or a typo, 'cause I’m gonna have to use it myself. ---
**Author:** ![MysteryFellow63427](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2004, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-cow-orker-id-love-to-help-the-child-if-she-existed/282016/23 "2004-12-29T18:42:18Z")
> [@Mynn](#): > > 32 cents? random number? No, 32 cents was the amount in the glurge email that the needy parents supposedly got every time someone opened it and read it. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2004, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-cow-orker-id-love-to-help-the-child-if-she-existed/282016/24 "2004-12-29T18:44:37Z")
> [@Larry Borgia](#): > > [hijack] > > Cow-orker. Is that a joke or a typo, 'cause I’m gonna have to use it myself. It began, years agoi, as a typo, but has been adopted by the Dopers as a term defining dimwitted collegues. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2004, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-cow-orker-id-love-to-help-the-child-if-she-existed/282016/25 "2004-12-29T23:07:20Z")
> [@Shirley Ujest](#): > > Just tell her that you are saving your energy and time to commit yourself to your Pull-Tab collection for some person. There’s a plastic bag tacked to the wall in our break area for these. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2004, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-cow-orker-id-love-to-help-the-child-if-she-existed/282016/26 "2004-12-29T23:10:02Z")
> [@manhattan](#): > > Passing on glurge is one thing, but when people start up with “It COULD be true” when faced with the facts then shame and humiliation is the only proper response. Even worse is “so what if it isn’t true, it’s a nice (or cute) story!” AAAAAARRRGHHH DIE DIE DIE!!! :::bangs head on desk::: ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2004, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-cow-orker-id-love-to-help-the-child-if-she-existed/282016/27 "2004-12-29T23:53:50Z")
> [@Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor](#): > > It began, years agoi, as a typo, but has been adopted by the Dopers as a term defining dimwitted collegues. The proliferation of “Cow-orker” is generally credited to one Charles Anderson, who began using it in his UseNet .sig sixteen years agoi. > [@](#): > > /-Charles-Anderson-\ [c...@midgard.mn.org](mailto:c...@midgard.mn.org) || (backbone)!bungia!midgard!caa > ------------------/ [c...@garnet.ssd.cdc.com](mailto:c...@garnet.ssd.cdc.com) || (backbone)!shamash!garnet!caa > > I’m gonna make like yesterday’s lunch, down and out the back. -me > (The above quote has been rated as gross, digusting, and tacky by my cow- > orkers at work…are you a cow orker? Would you like to be one? Send $5 > and SASEE to me for free (almost) informative (more or less) redundant (very) > information packet. VISA and MasterCard accepted (and abused).) ---
**Author:** ![35340](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/8baadc/32.png) [@35340](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/35340)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2004, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-cow-orker-id-love-to-help-the-child-if-she-existed/282016/28 "2004-12-30T16:04:59Z")
> [@neuroman](#): > > No, 32 cents was the amount in the glurge email that the needy parents supposedly got every time someone opened it and read it. ah - skimmed that. Thought postcards had gone up or first class gone down - or it was VERY old. ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Serpentine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3be4f8/32.png) [@Silver\_Serpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Serpentine)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2004, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-cow-orker-id-love-to-help-the-child-if-she-existed/282016/29 "2004-12-30T18:40:32Z")
Well, I have a friend who collects pull-tabs for [Ronald McDonald House](http://www.rmhc.com/kids/poptab_collection/index.html). I just don’t have the heart to tell her they only get $0.40 a pound, and it’d be a lot better if she took the ENTIRE can, sold those, and sent that money to them. Fewer cans make a pound than silly pull tabs. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2004, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-cow-orker-id-love-to-help-the-child-if-she-existed/282016/30 "2004-12-30T18:53:26Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > This really fucking gets on my tits. After, what, ten years of mass Internet use with every other email being deemed a hoax, you’d think people would, I dunno, exercise some common sense and be a bit more suspicious and discerning of forwarded glurge, but _no._ > > Stuff like this makes me think we’re fighting a hopeless war against ignorance. People don’t want the fucking truth. You know, I’ve sent the Snopes link to my family multiple times, and I don’t seem to be getting much glurge anymore. Could it possibly be that I’ve gotten through to someone? They probably just don’t forward the glurge du jour to me anymore. Oh well. Maybe we’re looking at this the wrong way, **Mr. Blue Sky**. Your co-worker just told you that she’s gullible; maybe you should, you know, take advantage of that somehow. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2004, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-cow-orker-id-love-to-help-the-child-if-she-existed/282016/31 "2004-12-30T18:59:20Z")
Do pull-tabs even exist anymore? I haven’t seen any in ages. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2004, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-cow-orker-id-love-to-help-the-child-if-she-existed/282016/32 "2004-12-30T20:05:37Z")
> [@pugluvr](#): > > Do pull-tabs even exist anymore? I haven’t seen any in ages. Yes, I’ve been sending them in for Hansen’s cancer research fund. I have found that if you Snopes (yes, I’m making it into a verb) people long enough, they might get a clue and check out the links; or else they will stop forwarding all the crap to you. I’m still educating my nieces about this, but I have seen a dramatic drop in the amount of glurgey appeals for missing nonexistent kids, abuses of bonsai’d kittens, and promises of wealth via Bill Gates and more. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2004, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-cow-orker-id-love-to-help-the-child-if-she-existed/282016/33 "2004-12-30T20:12:51Z")
> [@vivalostwages](#): > > (yes, I’m making it into a verb) If you’re going to do that, you should say “Snope”. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Odinoneeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/97f17d/32.png) [@Odinoneeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odinoneeye)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2004, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-cow-orker-id-love-to-help-the-child-if-she-existed/282016/34 "2004-12-30T21:48:05Z")
I think part of the “It might be true” response comes from a these people not wanting to admit that they were stupid enough to be taken in by these things. ---
**Author:** ![Cinnamon\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@Cinnamon\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cinnamon_Girl)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2004, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-cow-orker-id-love-to-help-the-child-if-she-existed/282016/35 "2004-12-30T22:00:17Z")
> [@Greywolf73](#): > > Oh boy, isn’t that the, err, truth. A friend of mine forwarded me the infamous “Bill Gates will pay you to forward this email!” email the other day, along with the comment, “I know this might not be true but I’m taking 60 seconds out of my busy day to pass this along on the off-chance that it might be true…blah, blah, blah”. My god, the stench of rotting turnips emanating from that guy must be nauseating. I sympathize. _sigh_ ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2004, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-cow-orker-id-love-to-help-the-child-if-she-existed/282016/36 "2004-12-31T00:17:58Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > The proliferation of “Cow-orker” is generally credited to one Charles Anderson, who began using it in his UseNet .sig sixteen years agoi. I believe _Dilbert_’s Scott Adams also helped to popularize it, along with “induhvidual.” At least I first heard it from Adams’s online newsletter. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2005, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-cow-orker-id-love-to-help-the-child-if-she-existed/282016/37 "2005-01-01T03:51:22Z")
> [@pugluvr](#): > > Do pull-tabs even exist anymore? I haven’t seen any in ages. You can still break off the doohickey that opens the can. This particular UL is a double :smack: :wally , because originally, people were urged to donate them so some kid could get a kidney dialysis machine. [:::sigh:::](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_077.html) Nobody has to **pay** for a dialysis machine! But like all such ULs, it feeds on the “Clap your hands so Tinkerbell won’t die” mindset. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2005, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-cow-orker-id-love-to-help-the-child-if-she-existed/282016/38 "2005-01-01T16:20:51Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > This particular UL is a double :smack: :wally , because originally, people were urged to donate them so some kid could get a kidney dialysis machine. [:::sigh:::](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_077.html) Nobody has to **pay** for a dialysis machine! But like all such ULs, it feeds on the “Clap your hands so Tinkerbell won’t die” mindset. The thing that gets me about this is one can apply a bare minimum of logic to the situation and see the ridiculousness therein. If some agency will donate money to help little Suzie from dying of nostril cancer, why don’t they just donate the money? Why must they make a game out of it? “We’ll save little Suzie, but only if millions of people forward an e-mail. If you don’t send this on, then little Suzie dies! Dies, I tells ya! Mwa ha ha ha ha! We’re pure evil!” Here’s a fun game you can play with pull-tab collectors: Act genuinely interested in the charitable project. Ask who is collecting the tabs. Ask who picks them up. Try to get the claimant to trace the entire path of exactly where the pull-tabs go, from collection box to dialysis machine. Do not accept “I don’t know, but somebody must take them” as an answer. Introduce the claimant to a little concept that we call “research.” Make the claimant answerable to you. Refuse to donate a single tab until you can be sure that they are not going to the “wrong sorts of charities.” Sit back and watch the fun. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2005, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-cow-orker-id-love-to-help-the-child-if-she-existed/282016/39 "2005-01-01T16:23:24Z")
> [@vivalostwages](#): > > I have found that if you Snopes (yes, I’m making it into a verb) people long enough, they might get a clue and check out the links; or else they will stop forwarding all the crap to you. I’m still educating my nieces about this, but I have seen a dramatic drop in the amount of glurgey appeals for missing nonexistent kids, abuses of bonsai’d kittens, and promises of wealth via Bill Gates and more. Or they may have just taken you off their distribution lists, you killjoy, you. I used to answer every one of my uncle’s forwards with a snopes link. One day, I stopped getting them. Come to find out he was still sending them out, just not to me. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2005, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-cow-orker-id-love-to-help-the-child-if-she-existed/282016/40 "2005-01-01T17:56:11Z")
**tdn** , yes, that could be. But hey, as long as it doesn’t clog my inbox, I don’t mind getting fewer forwards. Actually, most folks were glad to have the record set straight, and were a little miffed at having received them in the first place. **Lute** , you’re quite right. Snope 'em all, I say. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-cow-orker-id-love-to-help-the-child-if-she-existed/282016.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-cow-orker-id-love-to-help-the-child-if-she-existed/282016.md?page=3)