What toggled my interest was a cute little newsletter they put out from another site that they run, called grokdotcom.com. The newsletter describes itself as "the plain-spoken E-Business newsletter for management, entrepreneurs and investors."

Eisenberg, one of the principals at futurenowinc.com, got my attention with a humorous exchange of e-mails. He wanted me to write a piece on the upcoming Christmas season, and the e-mail exchange ended with HIM writing the story for me. He actually did a good job, but I constantly suffered from a serious case of journalistic conscience and told Jeff I just couldn''t do it that way.

Anyhow, I subscribed to the newsletter, and the latest issue was headlined:

I am Grok
Grok I am
I do not like Green Eggs and Ham
(But I LOVE Dr. Seuss!)

So, with permission and in the spirit of a long Labor Day weekend facing some of us, after which we have to get serious about handling the e-commerce holiday season, here''s something for you and your e-tail staff to enjoy, and to think about:

With apologies to Dr. Seuss:

One link two link, red link blue link
Oh my gosh here comes a new link
This click that click, here click there click
Huh? click HELP! click
Who knows where click?
New rules new day, how you must play
Who say? You say! I squeal "Oy-vey!"

Shockwave, Flash until I drop
When all I want to do is shop
And when at last your help I seek
I find it''s written all in Geek
My brain must not be made like yours
Perhaps I shop the wrong web stores
Sorry guys, I did my best
To pass your little website test
I sought to find a rocking horse
And wound up in an obstacle course

I''m bleary-eyed, my brain is fried
And heaven knows how hard I tried
But cannot find the thing I seek
I could not find it in a week
All I want to do is buy
Yet all the chaos makes me cry,
"I do not like this crazy stuff
I think I''ve had more than enough."
I do not like this Internet
This Internet I do not get

So to my real-world car I''m bound
I''ll search on terra-firmer ground

Sort of sums up a lot of my thoughts about e-commerce, too. My new friend Jeff sees eye-to-eye with me on a lot of these e-commerce issues, but he claims he''s not to blame for this bit of doggerel, however.

"We have a part-time writer (Lisa Davis) and an editor who is also our COO (David Weltman). They both collaborate with The Grok," he told me.

Grok, by the way, is taken from the landmark novel "Stranger in a Strange Land", by Robert A. Heinlein. It is a Martian word that implies the presence of intimate and exhaustive knowledge and understanding.