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A L S O__T O D A Y The war for your e-mail box By Andrew Leonard Do we need anti-spam laws? Some Net veterans think the unthinkable - - - - - - - - - - T A B L E _ T A L K Getting your parents online: Discuss the challenges and rewards of wiring the family in the Digital Culture area of Table Talk - - - - - - - - - - R E C E N T L Y Is culture endangered in the digital age? By Chris Bray Ironies abound at a Los Angeles conference pondering the future of museums and libraries (10/29/98) Blame it on Rio By Janelle Brown Netheads love the MP3 digital-music format. Why does the music industry hate it so much? (10/28/98) Prime time for hackers is over By Richard Thieme Why did a consultant hack a US West network to solve a 17th-century math problem? (10/27/98) Of math prodigies and canine cosmonauts By David Hudson "Habitus" mixes a dab of literary theory with a dose of the fantastic (10/26/98) Let's Get This Straight By Scott Rosenberg Microsoft's staggering profits overshadow the courtroom fireworks of the antitrust trial's first week (10/23/98) - - - - - - - - - - BROWSE THE 21ST CHALLENGE ARCHIVES - - - - - - - - - - 21st Log MoveOn campaign moves offline; millennium pundit vs. Wired _______

BY CHARLIE VARON AND JIM ROSENAU The phone rings as it does for any other call. It could be your aunt, your bowling partner, a long-lost cousin making contact. Instead, you hear a droning voice mispronounce your name and ask you to subscribe, buy, donate. Does telemarketing have to be so lacking in grace and beauty? Readers are invited to submit up to three haiku poems that could be used as telephone solicitations. (The haiku is a three-line poem in the five-seven-five form: The first line is five syllables; the second line is seven; the third line is five.) - - - - - - - - - - - - E X A M P L E Leaves rustle. Wind breathes change into our hearts. Time to switch phone companies? - - - - - - - - - - - - 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 Nov. 9, 1998. - - - - - - - - - - - - P R I Z E S The winning response this round will receive a copy of Salon technology correspondent Andrew Leonard's book, "Bots: The Origin of New Species." In addition, five entrants selected at random will receive complete sets of Nan McCarthy's "cybertrilogy" from Pocket Books: "Chat," "Connect" and "Crash." 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 | Oct. 30, 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.