#2: Who's that AOL guy who eerily knows when you've got mail?

Elwood Edwards was a voice over actor for radio and television in the late 1980's when the company his wife worked for, Q-Link, were discussing adding a voice to its online services. Mrs. Edwards suggested her husband for the job, and he recorded four phrases for the company including "Welcome," "File's done," "Goodbye," and the now infamous, "You've got mail!"

It wasn't much later that Q-Link changed its name to America Online and premeired AOL 1.0 with Edwards' phrases. Countless versions and permutations later, Elwood Edwards' voice is about the only thing still the same about the AOL online service.

If you are a fan of Mr. Edwards' work, he has his own website now where you can order custom phrases for your PC. Maybe he can say, "Pop culture icon."