Interfly in the Sky, I Can Climb Twice as High

My last blog post, and a recent e-mail I received from my mother, have prompted this post.

Every so often, I get an e-mail from someone containing a link to a quiz that will tell me whether my speech is more "Yankee" or "Dixie". Now, I know the people who send it to me (like my mother) are good-hearted and nice people. They send this e-mail, presumably, because either they think the recipients have never seen it before--I tend to get "Yankee or Dixie" as part of a mass e-mail--or because, knowing that you've seen it before, figure you'll probably still find it amsuing the second (or twenty-second) time around.

I think it's pretty clear these kinds of e-mailings need a name. They're not spam; they always come from someone you know (possibly not someone you know in real life, but someone whose name you at least recognize in a sender line). They don't ask you to buy anything or promise you private parts the size of Idaho. They are just amusing little nothings--sometimes jokes, sometimes links to a quiz, that sort of thing.

And so, without further adieux (maestro please), a name for these e-mails.

Henceforth, this type of e-mail shall be known as an interfly.

It's a portmanteu (blended word) of Internet and butterfly. Because that's exactly what these e-mails are: the butterflies of the internet. They alight here and there for a moment, ideally giving the recipient a brief moment of pleasure but at worst causing no real harm.

So keep the interflies coming.