According to the Times, Microsoft had cooked up a "massive media campaign designed to influence state investigators by creating the appearance of a groundswell of public support for the company." The plan included the planting of letters to the editor in major newspapers.

What exactly were these letters to the editor going to say? We invite you to create letters to the editor Microsoft intended to plant. Please keep your submissions under 100 words.

(Thanks to 21st reader Jens Afke for pointing us in the direction of this idea!)

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E X A M P L E S

To the Editor, Wall Street Journal:
I have followed Microsoft's recent legal controversies with some personal interest. As the target of a recent spate of antitrust actions brought by my own children -- who maintain that I have monopolized the affections of their mother -- I am well aware of the mental anguish accompanying this kind of litigation. Was it Dr. Johnson who said, "The law is an ass"? Lay off, Washington! The Sherman Act was never intended to apply to software.
Yours --
Jason Blackwell III
Darien, Conn.

Editor, Washington Post:
Though the press has found much unseemly joy in attacking Microsoft, many ordinary people like myself have a different experience of this corporation. Since I upgraded to Windows 95, my pancreatic cancer has gone into remission, my daughter was accepted to law school and I won $50 in the Lotto Quick Pick. Before the press finishes the work of pillorying this fine company, let's hear from more ordinary Americans whose lives have seen real improvements from their products.
Sincerely --
Charles Quisler
Lansing, Mich.

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R U L E S

Send your submissions via e-mail only to salon21st@salonmagazine.com. Please include your full name and an accurate e-mail address so we can contact you if you're a winner. By submitting your entry you give Salon permission to publish it. Deadline for entries is April 24, 1998. The winning response this round will receive a copy of Ellen Ullman's book, "Close to the Machine," winner of a Salon Book Award for 1997.

In two weeks we'll publish a winner and some selected entries -- then start over a couple weeks after that with a whole new challenge.

SALON | April 16, 1998

Charlie Varon is a humorist and playwright. His works include "Ralph Nader Is Missing" and "Rush Limbaugh in Night School." Jim Rosenau is a writer, editor and software designer in Berkeley, Calif. Jim and Charlie are also co-founders of the citizen group Californians for Earthquake Prevention and partners in Mockingbird Productions, which offers a full line of comic services.