For years, I cringed whenever election season was coming, because I’d have to endure TV ads. These days, thanks to technology, I watch most shows when and where I want, and don’t have to endure ads. But also thanks to technology, I now have to deal with emails.

The first time I got one of these, this summer, it was from “Sarah Jessica Parker”. My phone just previews the sender, title, and first couple words of the email. The first few words were, “Dear Peter ... “ I paused for a moment. Was this really the girl from “Sex and the City” emailing me personally? Had she read one of my columns and just wanted to reach out and tell me what a hoot I was? Of course not. She was just asking me to vote for the president. I was a little miffed. I don’t send her emails telling her how great Samantha was on the show.

SJP was just softening me up for the big guns. Soon I started getting emails regularly, from Joe Biden, Michelle Obama, and even, on occasion, the president himself. Each email started with a “Dear Peter” or a “Hey, Peter, wanted you to ... “ “Peter, what do you think about ... “I have just enough of an inflated ego that for a second each time, I’d think “Well, all right, all right, all right, somebody finally noticed me ... “ before I’d realize I was one of 650,000 recipients. (This is not entirely true. When I got the emails from Joe Biden, I just hit delete without even a thought. Nobody actually knows what a vice president does, other than get up every morning and hope, while brushing his or her teeth, that today will be “the day”.)