The internet being what it is, there's a lot of crap out there. But in among the dung are a few gold nuggets which you should fish out and treasure. One of them is 3 particular email newsletters.

Email newsletters have partly suffered from the advent of RSS feeds (I cut my newsletter subscriptions by as much as 75% when RSS was introduced). A lot of email newsletters contain advertising and I quickly unsubscribe from those. But there are 3 newsletters that I practically read as soon as they arrive in my inbox.

Here, based on years of reading, are my recommendations for the top 3 newsletters you MUST subscribe to. I have removed specialist newsletters such as freelance writing vacancies or computer geekery as they won't be of much interest to the non-writers and non-geeks of the world.

1. This Is True

Written by Randy Cassingham, This Is True comes out each week as both a free version and a paid premium version (after months of procrastination, I finally upgraded to the paid version). TIT (great acronym!) covers weird and wacky stories found in the international media such as a man suing his doctor because he survived his cancer longer than the doctor predicted. Or only 68 of 200 Anglican priests polled could name all Ten Commandments, but half said they believed in space aliens. All the stories are true (hence, "This Is True").

What I like about Randy is that he makes some commentary on the stories and his views are often thought-provoking. He also adds on funny tag-lines to each story which are almost as funny as the story itself. He also has a "Bonzer Site" section where he shows you a cool new website he has found and "Honorary Unsubscribe" where he does an obituary on a recently-deceased person who made an impact in the world but was probably overlooked by the world's media. Oh and if that ain't enough, he has other sites such as his blog, Jumbo Joke, and Cranky Customer.

TIT has spawned books and also a TV channel broadcast on YouTube. Oh and if you're feeling a little unsecure, why not purchase a "Get Out of Hell Free" card. Hey, I've got mine! ----------->>>>>


2. True Stella Awards

Also written by Randy Cassingham (where does this guy find all the time?!), the True Stella Awards are named after Stella Liebeck who won $2.9 million from a New Mexico jury after she spilled hot McDonalds coffee on her lap. So the "True Stella Awards" are a look at some of the most ludicrous lawsuits currently working their way through the US legal system. Includes commentary and links to relevant online news stories. TSA are not published as often as This Is True due to Cassingham's time restraints (he has recently hired some "guest writers" to help him with the articles). Still worth a look though if you have an interest in the law.


3. The Straight Dope

I'd like to ask Cecil one important question - how does he know so much? (my hunch is that he looks on Google!). The Straight Dope gives you the answers to any burning questions you may have. Cecil gives long and fascinating answers and I guarantee you will be bookmarking a lot of his pages for future reference! Oh and the FAQ is a real hoot - especially number 15.