Chinese Proverbs

I got one of those forwards today complete with PowerPoint show telling me 16 times that if I didn't pass along the ancient Chinese proverb from the Netherlands originally published by Emperor Constantine that I would have bad luck in four days. What the heck! These things drive me crazy for so many reasons.

Mostly because of the content. Is there really someone who wrote this and someone else who sent it to me who takes this seriously? Have I really given my friends the impression that I'm simple enough to wade through the hideous spelling and grammar, ridiculous historical claims, and inane PowerPoint to believe the story of the orphaned African boy who just wants to see his worldwide spamming dream come true?

I also wonder how these things get started. I'm guessing there's a guy in a cube somewhere bored stiff who decides to make this thing up and see how far it will go? Like maybe he's got the next dancing baby here and he'll be Internet famous even though no one will know who he is? He'll just be able to tell his buddies, "Hey, you know that stupid Chinese proverb forward you've got 18 times? I made that up!"

Of course, it's just as silly for me to lambast this miracle of modern Internet culture. But oh well. It's kind-of a slow day.