Haunting Valley

Way back before Al Gore invented the Internet, there was something called the Usenet. For those of you who don’t remember it, or never even heard of it, the Usenet was a kind of electronic bulletin board and information-swapping forum.

There were thousands of newsgroups—some devoted to helpful subjects such as finance or travel, and others devoted to less weighty topics, such as Star Trek (including the infamous “alt.wesley.crusher.die.die.die”). Bill and I, co-workers at a certain local spa...