‘Oh, Mom!’

Postcards From Yo Momma is one of those Web sites that makes you slap your forehead and say, "Why didn't I think of that?" It's such a simple idea: invite people to submit unintentionally funny, and sometimes sweet, e-mails from their mothers. You know the ones--the naggy notes, the worried pleas, the guilt-grams, the ALL CAPS missives, the technologically panicked cries for help and the e-mails from moms who compulsively forward dire health warnings to their kids. (Munchausen's by Internet anyone?)

"Call me. I suffer," writes one mom.

And another: "tell me about face book. do you have a page on it? can anyone look at your page? I am worried about this type of thing."

Then there's the short, but direct variety: "std's are on the rise. love, mom."

These are the kinds of e-mails that a lot of us already forward to our friends for their amusement. In fact, that's how the two women who started the blog came up with the project. Doree Shafrir and Jessica Grose, both young journalists and bloggers in New York City, had been exchanging their own mom mail when, at the end of March, they decided to solicit material from the public in a blog. "We put up the site in five minutes," says Shafrir. Less than two months later, they've received more than 2,000 submissions and have snagged a book contract ("LOVE, MOM," due out from Hyperion in April 2009). "We started it on a lark," says Grose. "We never thought people would get so excited."

Call it another blogs-to-riches story. Both women have worked for Gawker Media blogs, but Shafrir, 30, is now a features reporter with the New York Observer. Grose, 26, works full-time for Jezebel--a Gawker blog about pop culture and fashion with a feminist bent. Their own mothers, they say, are proud, and not at all offended by "Postcards." (Though we imagine their moms are censoring their communications a bit more these days.)

Here are excerpts of some of our favorite e-mails and IMs submitted to the site:

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Have fun in Houston . Keep in touch with your strawberry

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good news!
Our insurance covers :  THE HPV VACCINATION.
but, this is NOT a license to have wild, unprotected sex, y'know!!  hehehhehehee.
xox,
mom