Title: Just Another Case of History Repeating
Rating: G
Originally published: Aug. 15, 2011
Notes: I wrote this around the time that Borders bookstores was going out of business. Even though I always though of Fox Books as being more like Barnes & Noble, those scenes in the movie were filmed in a Manhattan Borders. So now, You've Got Mail has a wonderfully ironic epilogue that nobody was expecting. This little bit of nonsense came out of that

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"When I closed my shop, Birdie told me it was the brave thing to do."

"Did that help?"

"No, not really. But I appreciated that she said it so convincingly."

"Great."

"The thing is, she was right. Change is scary, but it's the only way that something that something better can happen."

"I think change was part of the problem here. Or the inability to adapt to change."

"Okay. Look at it this way. It might have taken fifteen years, but you are officially free of any guilt from putting me out of business."

"I really don't do well with irony."

"But I got you to smile."

"Yes, you did."

"You did well, Joe. You did everything you could to keep this from happening."

"I did everything except convince the board and my father that the internet was threat until it was too late."

"That is not your fault."

"No, I guess not. There's always someone bigger and badder that you are."

"And someday Amazon will be the one at risk."

"Probably thanks to something that they started. 'It's not personal'. Remember how you gave me hell when I told you that?"

"Oh, don't remind me."

"You said that it all ought to begin by being personal. You were quite eloquent."

"I quite sick. I think I had enough cold medicine in me to knock out a mastodon."

"This... this is the definition of impersonal. No faces. No names. Nobody to greet you or strike up a conversation in the checkout aisle. Just you and words on your screen. Want more? Now, we turn those pesky books into a screen too! Buy any book you want, but you can't lend it out or donate to a library when you're through. Things like human interaction just aren't necessary."

"Are turning into a luddite on me?"

"No... No, I'm not. I'm serious, Kathleen. In spite of everything, I will forever be grateful the internet was invented."

"Really?"

"Yes. It brought me to you."