I yield to no-one in my admiration for Amazon.ca. Not only do they purvey books and music and movies, the noblest products known to mankind, but in my experience they do so with exemplary celerity and excellent service.

Their one quirk is a tendency to send me chatty little emails that invite to examine products that other people who share my tastes have purchased. I initially thought this was simply an effort on their part to be friendly, a suggestion that I should be getting out more and meeting people; but I have since regretfully concluded that they are, in fact, suggesting that I might like to purchase those products too.

Sometimes their reasoning is clear. I can understand, for instance, why people who bought the third season of “Farscape” might logically be prospects for the fourth season of “Farscape”. But sometimes their reasoning escapes me. Here, for example, are some of the peculiar conceptual linkages that have taken place deep in the bowels of the Amazon.ca computer that establishes these connections.

We thought you might like to know, as a customer who purchased “The Marx Brothers Collection”, that “The Love Pack”, featuring “The Wedding Date” and “Love Actually”, will be released on February 14th.

(can you imagine anything more antithetical to the anarchic Marx Brothers than a pair of sappy romantic comedies?)

Customers who bought “Tito Puente Live at the Monterey Festival” have also shown an interest in “All Time Gay Disco Favourites”…

(Can someone explain the connection between the legendary Puerto Rican drummer and bandleader - straight, as far as I can tell - and The Village People?)

And my favourite, the inspiration for this post, received yesterday:

As a customer who bought “Hero With A Thousand Faces” by Joseph Campbell, we thought you might like to know that “You Suck” by Christopher Moore is now available.