Odd, but I got this email dated October 3rd, 1996:
Date: Thu, 3 Oct 96 01:37:56 -0500 (CDT)
From: Rogers Cadenhead http://www.prefect.com/rogers/email.html
Sender: rcade@mail.airmail.net
To: Ed Light, MCF
Subject: Cruel Site of the Day winner
http://members.gnn.com/fivestring/sherman.htm
Congratulations!
The above has been chosen as the Cruel Site of the Day. Because this selection is a great honor that is achieved by only a select few, we understand that some honorees will want to note their achievement on the page.
Add the following HTML lines to publicize your victory:
<center>
<a href="http://www.cruel.com">
<img src="http://www.cruel.com/chosen.gif" border=0>
</a>
</center>
If you have any questions, don't expect to get answers from us because we revel in human suffering. You can, though, visit the Cruel Site of the Day at
Thanks for doing your part to make negativity, bitterness, fear, recrimination, and/or loathing more common on the Net! (If none of these apply, thanks for frightening us in some way, being Just Plain Odd, or coming up in a random search of Alta Vista when we were under deadline pressure).
Rogers Cadenhead
I browsed over there but found that William Sherman's story had been the winner for October 1, two days earlier. It's listed on the Heritage page.
Actually, I thought of forgetting about it, but it seemed like a very unusual news item.
I don't suppose I'll display the winner's graphic on the home page, though.