!'s in my nightly newsletter

I have been getting exclamation points in odd places in my nightly newsletter. Here are a couple of examples from the Oct. 4th newsletter:

palmbob Comment Cycad
(Cyc! as panzhihuaensis

palmbob Image
Taro, ! Elephant Ear 'Black Magic (aka Jet Black Wonder)'
(Colocasia esculenta

MusaRojo Image
Golden! Shrimp Plant, Lollipop Plant
(Pachystachys lutea)

Sometimes I will click on a description to see the enlarged picture and I will get an error message because there is an exclamation point in the URL. The exclamation point can appear anywhere in the URL:
http://plantsdatabase.com/showpicture/27662!/
Database error: Invalid SQL: select caption, image, user, pid, tid from pdb_images where imageid = 27662! and showorder > 0
MySQL Error: 1064 (You have an error in your SQL syntax near '! and showorder > 0' at line 1)
Session halted.

What's happening? Am I being invaded by aliens?

What's happening? Am I being invaded by aliens?

Yes, but that's a separate issue. ;) My newsletter came through okay - at least in my Lycos Mail, that is. I wonder if it just got corrupted en route to you, a fluke thing.

LOL, GW. The problem is it has happened for at least the last 3 or 4 days, if not longer. Who would I contact about it if it is getting corrupted? The aliens? {:^)

That would explain those crop circles in your back yard. I wondered when I saw the report on WBNS 10TV. What e-mail program are you using? Do you get the newsletters in plain text or HTML?

! Weezingreens Image
Sitka Burnet
(Sanguisorba stipulata

I have noticed it often but thought it was just my Yahoo account doing it. Sometimes it is like the one above and other times it pops up in the middle of a name.

Zany, I am glad to know that I am not the only one the aliens are visiting! LOL

GW, you are too much! They were beautifully designed crop circles, weren't they? As for my email, I am using Outlook Express and my Mail Sending Format is HTML and my News Sending Format is Plain text. I have no idea what that means; I sure hope you do! {:^)

Nope. You are not alone...THEY are out there...the ! ! 's are their footprints left in cyberspace. Be afraid... be VERY AFRAID... THEY are watching and reading our newsletters...

I thought it was just me......but then I've only been around for a month or so. So I have the ! thing too and another question. What's with the bold yellow, black and sometimes fuschia highlighting certain entries?

At first I thought it might be some kind of code/key to the plant of the day.....but that wasn't it. Anyone else seeing bold splashes of color...???

I think I've gone over the 50words, 10 lines, way too chatty....but never mind, I think that's another thread or sumthin.

Ya probly can't hear it in my typing, but even after 25 years in California people still say I have my Chicago accent.....hard to transfer to the written word, but can you see my hands moving as I wave them around to emphasize a point?! :-)

LOL was that your hands causing the breeze this afternoon?

I do get those occasional hilighted entries also. Not sure why. I think it is the aliens. As they peruse the newsletter and leave their !! footmarks, they occasionally highlight an entry so they other aliens won't over look it.

Yes, the ! problem is real and has plagued the newsletter for a long time. I need some exlamationacide (organic, preferably) to deal with it. One day...

dave

Good one, Dave! LOL

It could be that the font that some folks email is set to is not exactly compataple with the one used for the newsletter.

Dave,

That reminds me of a letter I wrote to John Stossel a few years ago when he did a segment on organic farming and how we "organic farmers" basically use our own excrement for fertilizer! Well, for days, he was lambasted with so many negative emails, I thought there was going to be a riot....you may remember that.

I wrote to JS and said, "John, it sounds like you opened a can of worms. I hope they were organic worms!"

He wrote back to me saying he hoped so too! Talk about saying one thing and talking another.

I've not put much creedence in his newscasts since then. :)

Kathy @ Misty Meadows Farm