If -- with the knowledge that your friend is lame and cowardly -- you still want to keep the friendship alive and high-steppin', might we suggest, and this is crazy, pulling up his number and calling him maybe?

CNN: Dueling online over 'Call Me Maybe'

"She had already tried to break off the love interest part of the relationship, but wanted to keep the friendship going as he had been nothing less than cordial to her, " Detective Dana McReynolds of the University of Tennessee police told BBC News Online.

BBC: Stalker had sophisticated cyber plan

Although living 130 miles apart, the two formed a friendship last year and began using MSN Messenger and mobile phone texts to keep in daily contact.

BBC: NEWS | UK | Wales | Bullying link to 'suicide' denied

Those stakes they keep are being treated more as assets that must pay their way and less as the basis for a cosy friendship with the companies' managers.

ECONOMIST: German companies