Had an interesting e-mail exchange this morn with a writer-friend who complained that I keep linking to interesting-sounding articles (like the one about the Rosenbergs) that are on sites that require registration. Even though it's free, he says, he refuses to register anywhere because he fears it will only contribute to the flow of spam to an e-mailbox that is already crammed full of offers of guaranteed loans, Russian brides and larger tallywhackers. I don't think The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times sell e-mail addresses — at least not to vendors of herbal viagra — but I made a suggestion that hadn't occurred to my friend: Get a junk mail address.
No law says you have to have but one e-mail address. Your I.S.P. (Internet Service Provider) probably provides you with the opportunity to register several other Screen Names for the same fee. If not, there are always services like Hotmail which can give you another, wholly-separate e-mail identity. Use your "junkmail address" whenever you need to register for something and let its mailbox fill with spam. You can then check it every so often to see if anything in there matters to you, or when you need to confirm an address to complete some sign-up. If you haven't considered this, maybe you should.