Every time he sends a picture from his camera phone to a friend or to his blog, the image comes complete with a marketing message from Verizon -- a marketing message that Verizon tells him cannot be deactivated. He writes:

"Yes, I pay for a service that lets me send marketing messages to you! And I can't turn off those marketing messages! Isn't life wonderful?"

He actually went through the trouble of contacting Verizon to ask if they might be so kind as to help him stopping doing this to his friends and readers. The response he received was that kind of polite "you gotta be kidding?" that drives people wild.