Whenever a particularly good, interesting or significant email comes my way, I will quickly move it to my “personal” box and promptly forget about it. This is why I have 477 messages in this box. I guess that’s not bad, considering this archive goes back to 1999, but still! Electronic pack-rat am I.

I like to keep little bits of prose that make me happy. Well-written, kind, funny gems that spring from the minds of my pals (and other sources.)

In this installment, my friends and family show their sweet and funny side. I have drawn a lot of strength and knowledge from these wonderful people.

Chris E wrote this to me after I lost my dad this year:

I love you a huge dumpster-ful and wish you peace and ease of being and everything good.

My sis Annie wrote a poemy-like thing about me in 2000! Here’s a excerpt:

becky can make the funniest movies in the world
becky can pick out the ugliest clothes and make them cool
becky turns things on their head
becky offends Nancy Reagan

Here’s a recent one from an ANONYMOUS (to you) LURKER whom I simply adore. I have saved a huge amount of her emails, but this little snip caught my eye, so very appropriate to her and to us — and advice I took to heart. I hope she appreciates my respect of her anonymity!:

Your favorite records can be reliable friends, too.

Nora counseled me on a sticky situation and caution me to move carefully (2000):

Bring out your biggest robot and ask for advice and guidance here.

From Doreen, after I wrote her from Europe in 2001. The run-on style of this paragraph is very Doreeny:

You international jet setter you. So jealous of your tour of the continent. Have you gone on a diamond heist yet? Don’t the Germans just have the best eyewear? Even grandmothers won’t be caught dead without 800-mark bifocals. Take lots of pictures and don’t eat too much strudel!

After I got back from that trip to Europe, I got an email from Yoshibumi, and awesome Japanese guy Danny and I met in Amsterdam:

How’s going about U.S home? I guess, “home is home” don’t you?

Tonight, I got opened my pc and internet actually, sending this first mail from my flat, uuun, AMASING!

This is apropos of nothing, but one of the first name-generator widgets on the web was What’s Your Wu Name, where you can get your very own Wu-Tang Clan name. Here are a few generated among the staff at Film Arts Foundation, where I worked (1999):

TJ: My Cousin the Wife-Beatah
IS: Dubious Masturbatah-X
AM: Inebriated Assistant
PK: Big Gay Mule

Unfortunately, my name is lost to the sands of time, but I just regenerated it and this time, it’s: Action-Packed Mentallist. That’s tuff! What’s Your Wu Name?