Stalking, Weird Letters

["Karen L. Newcombe" <kln@crl.com>]

Here's that synchronicity thing again.  We've been talking here about 
stalkers and letters from weirdos and today I've run across two articles 
on the subject . . . one is in the New York Times regarding a teacher who 
has been pursued and threatened via e-mail by some guy she met once at a 
party for singles or something.

The second one is a little less disconcerting.  The Technology Review, a 
magazine of tech from MIT has a hilarious article on p. 72 of their 
October issue.  Technology Review is bombarded with mail from people who 
are building spaceships in their back yard so they can "return to their 
true home - Saturn", folks who share their "personal memories of King 
Arthur", and the mysterious Mr. O. who managed to devise a machine from a 
wire coil, a thumbtack and a nonfilter cigarette that "blocks out 
malicious telepathy."

Tech Review consulted a psychologist to find out why they get so much 
nutty mail.  He said "Such people develop their own cosmology that 
includes elements of whatever they hear about or know about.  The ones 
who write to the Rolling Stone (magazine) have delusions about rock stars."

He also discusses a seizure disorder known as hypergraphia, though I 
doubt it could be common enough to account for the number of weird 
correspondence generated each year.

Karen  kln@crl.com