Okay, so maybe I need to choose my friends more carefully, but Karl just created a user named on his Linux box, and sends me mail from it. Thanks a bunch, Karl. When I try to read the message in VM, I get the following error: Signalling: (wrong-type-argument stringp nil) string-match("\\bjimb\\b" nil) bbdb/vm-update-record(nil) bbdb/vm-pop-up-bbdb-buffer(nil) bbdb/vm-update-record() run-hooks(vm-select-message-hook) vm-run-message-hook([[#<marker at 1899382 in INBOX> #<marker at 1899450 in INBOX> #<marker at 1899799 in INBOX> #<marker at 1899925 in INBOX> #<marker at 1900064 in INBOX> #<marker at 1900065 in INBOX>] ["658" "658" nil #<marker at 47607 in INBOX Summary> #<marker at 47688 in INBOX Summary> <<>> <-- From_ "2464" #<buffer INBOX> nil nil nil nil nil nil] [nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["139" "Mon" "14" "August" "1995" "20:48:33" "-0500" "Vapor User" "Vapor User <>" nil "7" "did you know that, under Linux" "^From:" nil nil "8" nil nil (number " " mark " Vapor User Aug 14 7/139 " thread-indent "\"did you know that, under Linux\"\n") nil] [nil <v> t nil nil]] vm-select-message-hook) vm-preview-current-message() vm-follow-summary-cursor() vm-scroll-forward(nil) call-interactively(vm-scroll-forward) If I continue from this error, I can read the message. Of course, the correct fix is to shoot Karl, or his machine, but I was thinking maybe BBDB has some sort of pacifist values, and would want to forestall such an occurrence.