Actually, not a bad idea. Take one debunked hoax from Snopes every day and e-mail it to her. This way, she’ll:
learn how it feels to be the one receiving endless e-mail forwards
learn, in advance, that some of the glurge she finds on-line is not true; if you send her an UL before someone else does, you won’t have to waste time searching for an answer later. A preemptive strike.
O.P.er checking in.
Thank you all for your thoughtful replies!
Many of you have indicated that my reaction was not unreasonable, but that my friend’s attitude is, well, bizzare. This I have found very reassuring.
Anth. and Lee: I appreciate the technical viewpoints, a subject that is not one of my strengths.
Sublight and waterj: Both of you seem to have a pretty good handle on my difficulty in reconciling my friend’s professional/scientific abilities and her behavior in this case. I am as surprised as you are.
princhester: That would be too easy! I may have to resort to that, however.
Kalt: Good observations. I will keep your arguments in mind next time I talk to her.
postcards: Too funny! In the late 70s/early 80s there appeared on newstands a parody of the National Enquirer…the Irrational Enquirer, or somesuch. They had a story on “The Most Handicapped Kid in the World”. He was a disembodied head. They went on about his plucky attitude, how he liked to play footbal with his friends (he was the football).
whitetho: Its good to hear that about the 700 Club. The fight against ignorance continues on many fronts, and we have allies we don’t even know about! However, my friend is a left-leaning hard core atheist, so I don’t think she is a regular viewer!
Several others of you suggested good defensive/offensive strategies. Judging by the tone of her last e-mail, I suspect I won’t be getting any more of these glurges from her, and I think the reason for her snippy attitude was defensiveness on her part…she’s realized she was out of line. I don’t think our friendship is irreversibly damaged, and I will keep working on her, gently. Although she hasn’t come across well here, she really is a good person…she has raised money doing the Boston to New York AIDS ride for each of the last five years, she has great taste in music and beer, and like me is a NY Yankee fan in Red Sox country.
Having thought it over since last night, and reading your responses, I have decided to point out to her why I take some of these glurges so personally, particularly the one about the (non)missing Mineo kid. I have a young son, and if the Little Lagomorph were ever to (Frith forbid) go missing, I would be beside myself to think that people were sending around to 10, 100, 1000 people a picture and description of a kid who wasn’t missing, when they could be passing around a picture of a kid who really needed help. Thanks all!