You've Got Mail

Drove up to Fredericksburg yesterday morning as my wife had a hair appointment. Yes, we drive 60 miles as she didn't give up her hairdresser when we moved 5 years ago. I'm told this is normal. Anyway, a podcast I had on was talking about the Tom Hanks / Meg Ryan flick You've Got Mail, and I realized I had somehow managed to never see that movie.

So we knew what we had to do last night.

But first, while in Fredericksburg I had coffee with two friends and spent some time "browsing" the fabulous Riverby Bookstore before we had lunch at J Brian's Tap Room. Once we got back to Fredericksburg I tagged along on an errand with my son, an errand that involved a stop at Final Gravity Brewing, where we ran into more friends. Beer, books, coffee, and friends. A++++ day, would do it again.

Anyway, so last night we settled onto the couch to watch You've Got Mail. I do appreciate that in 2023 I can pull up pretty much any mainstream release movie and rent it for $3.99 without leaving my couch. It sure beats driving to Blockbuster, although that did have its own charms.

The movie made me quite nostalgic for the early days of the online world. I never had an AOL account longer than the free trial, as I started with a traditional ISP dial-up account and considered myself too cool for AOL. Had I realized Meg Ryan was hanging out in the AOL chat rooms I may have been more open minded :) But the simplicity of checking your email once in the morning and once in the evening, and the ability to separate your real life from your online life, are facets of the 90s I wouldn't mind having back.

It's a Nora Ephron RomCom, so you know what you are going to get. But Hanks was basically catfishing Meg Ryan, and she should have been way more pissed at the end of the movie when she realized he had been playing her all along. But we were about 10 years from inventing the verb catfish, and I guess is was a simpler and more naive online existence in 1999.

Also, with the movie being released in 1999, I'm guessing they were writing the script in 1997 or 98? That was too soon to recognize Amazon as the threat it was, but it's funny how Barnes & Noble, err, Fox Superstore, is not the bad guy in 2023. Although we would all prefer The Shop Around the Corner in our neighborhood, I don't think any bibliophile is upset if there is a B&N nearby.

And since we talking about email, feel free to use the reply link below if you have something to say.