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D-liver D-letter D-farther in D-future D-better

NPR | By Melody Joy Kramer

Published January 18, 2007 at 3:45 PM EST

January 18, 2007

Dear Five for Friday,

I know that things come and go in the Web world. So a year from now, you might not even exist. And everyone will probably forget that you provided us with cool stuff to do each weekend.

But just in case you stick around, we're sending you this letter. That's because we stumbled across a Web site called Future Me. The premise is pretty simple: pen an e-mail to anyone, including yourself, on Future Me's Web site, put any date on the e-mail (between tomorrow and Dec. 31, 2037) and Future Me will deliver the contents of the e-mail to the inbox on the specified date. You can send yourself grocery lists for next week, or memories for the next decade. (But be sure to use an e-mail address that you know will last.)

So, Five for Friday, what's it like in the future? Is American Idol still on the air? Is Steve Jobs still releasing products. (He'd be almost 90 now, right?) Is Susan Stamberg still making Mama's cranberry relish? Maybe, maybe, definitely yes.

See ya later, Five for Friday. Hope the future for you contains a lot of lists of things to do.

Love,

Melody

Melody Joy Kramer, who's spending the year at NPR as a Kroc Fellow, will be old – but not as old as her editors — in the year 2037.