Every now and then, a mass email hits the blogosphere like a game of Chinese Whispers. Like any fake but accurate story, the themes remain the same while details change constantly. So, is the company fifteen years old (as seen on Bablublog) or is it twenty-eight (Rottie)? Does it really matter? Memes like these exist and persist as a portmanteau of experiences and ideas that resonate across groups of participants.

The embellishments generally get laid on thick, and while I don’t have the resources to trace the origins of such a meme, I’m sure there are others that do. In the end, mass emails have some kind of role in maintaining a consistent message among those willing to suspend a little disbelief. The empathic appeal of these messages can outweigh the words of any pundit in print, online, or on television. I’m certain that anthropologists can tell us that this is a not a new occurence, and that the image of a diet of Ramen Pride noodles is pretty recurrent throughout history, albeit the subsistence foodstuff will be different.