chain mail love

If you have a tweenager, then you undoubtedly have heard of or seen "chain mail." Tween girls seem particularly enamored with this type of socializing, passing on these email messages far and wide. I have a vague memory of "chain letters" back in the day -- but I cannot seem to remember what they said in them. Did they promise good luck? Threaten bad luck? Guarantee my true love would realize that I was his true love?

I seem to remember one of the requirements being that one would meticulously copy the chain letter, word-for-word, and then give them to one's friends and hope they didn't break the chain. In the modern day version, all a girl has to do is click and send -- complete with misspellings and grammatical errors -- just click, and your world is a better place. Or else. Here is an example of one my daughter was reading recently:

A girl asked a guy if he thought she was pretty , he said... no . She asked him if he would want to be with her forever ....and he said no . She then asked Him if she were to leave would he cry ? and once again he replied with a no .
> She had heard enough . As she walked away, tears streaming down her face the boy grabbed her arm and said....You're not pretty you're b e a u t i f u l . I don't want to be with you forever . I NEED to be with you forever , and i wouldn't cry if you walked away...I'd die ...
> I like yo u because of who you are to me . Your a true friend , if i don't get this back i'll take a h i n t .
Tonight at midnight your true love will realize they like you. Something good will happen 2 you at 1:00-4:00 PM tomorrow , it could be anywhere AOL, yahoo, outside of school , anywhere . Get ready for the biggest shock of your life . I If you break this chain letter you will be cursed with 10 relationship problems for the next ten years . If you send 1 5 ppl this in 1 5 min you're safe.

Wow. If this thing works, something good will happen to my daughter tomorrow, she will have the biggest shock of her life, and she and her true love will have no relationship problems for the next ten years! It's too bad that barely gets them past the legal drinking age ...