Problems with automatic (\"answering machine\") mail responders

[dm at BBN-VAX.ARPA]

Once, a long time ago, in the dark ages of ARPANET history (even before there
was SF-LOVERS), someone added a "Tell everyone who sends me mail that I'm on
vacation" feature to their mailsystem, send a message to their friends about it,
then left for vacation.

One of this person's correspondents thought this was a wonderful idea, and
added it to their mailsystem, too.  The correspondent sent a note to the
originator of the idea saying, "Great idea!  I did it, too!"  Then this person
left on vacation.

The "Great idea!" message arrived, and the dutiful answering machine sent a
reply to the copycat saying its master was on vacation.

The note from the answering machine arrived at the copycat's machine, and the
copycat's answering machine sent a reply to the reply, saying its master was
on vacation.

The reply**2 arrived at the originator's machine, which prompted the answering
service to answer,...

Eventually one of them ran out of disk space.

Thank Lesk, in UUCP, these connections take place only once every few hours,
instead of on demand (as they do in the ARPANET).