I was never one of the popular girls at school, for which reason I used to sneer at them and pretend to enjoy a certain anonymity in being rather average. Secretly, however, I used to wonder what it would be like to be universally admired and feted. How strange then to find now, so many years later, that I am at last popular, especially on the Internet, in the form of unwarranted (by me) emails.

Have you ever wished that you weren’t quite so in demand? I do. The many Viagra offers from Canada (do Canadian’s think that Sally is a man’s name?) go straight into my spam box and get deleted daily in one fell swoop (or click). More tricky to detect are the up to twelve unsolicited emails each day, mostly from Barkin Fiasco (or some such sounding name) somewhere in Africa, asking me to become a trusted business partner so that I may manage and share large amounts of money varying from $2,000,000 – $9,000,0000; you wouldn’t believe how many people have died in car accidents, plane crashes and from sudden diseases without leaving wills… and I am the one person in the world that all the claimants believe they can trust! The trouble with these emails is that they ride in under the respected names of Google Calendar or, as was the case of one today – firedoglake. Firedoglake? Never heard of it? Neither had I.

I have a friend in America with the surname Lake; I wondered if he went off the name Gary recently and during a brainwave decided to call himself “Firedog” (hot diggity dog! Yahoo! Y’old hound dawg you!). As much as I thought it an exciting idea I didn’t really see Gary as Professor Firedog Lake, mild-mannered lecturer in Agriculture from Wisconsin; and I was afraid to open the email in case it contained a “Trojan horse”, so I checked Google for “firedoglake“. FDL, as it is shortened to – probably to look like federal, which would be much more appropriate – is an interesting American news site, a sort of US online version of “Private Eye” magazine, which pokes about for the nitty gritty truth below the surface and treats it with the sarcasm it deserves. The site also has a book salon (not a store or library) – I read a synopsis of “The Vertical Farm” book (farms in skyscrapers – fascinating!) – and for a moment I wondered if a whizzkid from FDL wanted to profile my own book. The notion flitted into my head and straight out again – after all, “The Innocent Flirt Down Under” is no great expose of anything more subversive than my own innocent thoughts whilst visiting Australia (not even America!) a little while ago.

Hence, intrigued but not unduly excited, when I opened the email from firedoglake I was only slightly disappointed to find myself Miss Popularity yet again, this time with a Miss Angie Abdul, who was also Miss-Informed if indeed, she was amiss at all.

The “Pouting Baby” story at FDL, accompanying the email, was much more illuminating and amusing… to the folk who live in Washington and remember what shenanigans Judge Clarence got up to some years ago… I imagine he was very popular at the time but I don’t care because I sneer at popularity.