Ignoring my Better Judgement

I am the argumentative sort. Opinionated and arrogant, I seek out opposing viewpoints and challenge them. This takes me to some places I might not otherwise visit.  One of these is the New Yorker magazine online.

I made a mistake. I should not have created an account there so I could comment. Why? because of the law of unintended consequences, of course. I thought that the New Yorker would be a rational site, one that does not exploit its readers' data. I was woefully wrong, of course.

A couple of days after establishing my account, I began receiving spam using the email address I gave them in registering my New Yorker account. And, since then, I receive at least one piece of spam a day to that email address.

I use that email account at few, very few, places on the web. Any of them could have sold this info to the various spammers out there, I am sure. Yet, not one piece of spam showed up for that account in the 18 months I have had it and began using it... until a few days after signing up with the New Yorker in mid-November of 2012 .  My math skills, though not what they were before the advent of pocket calculators,  are still good enough to add 2 and 2 and get the correct sum.

It is interesting to note that I use the very same email address at what I assume is a sister publication... the New York Times... and have done so for most of that 18 months I have had the email account.

The damage, of course, is already done. Cancelling the New Yorker account will have no effect on the spam.