> ... I received a phone call from a state (FL) company wondering ...
> ... She then proceeded to tell me, and I quote, "I got your name
> ... off of the Histonet"
> ... Well, I found this quite disturbing

  So you should.

  This could herald the Beginning of the End of our
  wonderfully managed listserver. Let us pray that
  this abomination will not spread. Let us also
  make it clear to these objectionable advertisers
  that we will never buy from them again if they
  do not publicly repent, with much groveling, and
  firmly resolve to avoid the occasions of sin.

  Whatever you do, DON'T reply directly to any email
  spam, and NEVER follow the advice to send a message
  with "remove" in the Subject line"  This will confirm
  that your address is still active, and the spamming
  will increase. Send spam reports to the postmaster
  of your own email server, who should know what to do.

  If someone telephones you because of an email, report
  him/her to everyone you can think of, and tell all
  your friends never to buy anything from that
  company again. Tell the wretched telemarketing kid
  to tell his miserable boss that there are no takers.

  If HistoNet gets to be seen as a bunch of 1000 or so
  possible buyers, we'll all get targetted (if that's
  a real word; "shot at" is more correct), and most of
  us will unsubscribe. This will be sad, and the only
  people receiving the junk email and phone calls will
  be those who unscribe, unsusribe, ususcribe.

 John A. Kiernan,
 Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology,
 The University of Western Ontario,
 LONDON,  Canada  N6A 5C1