Luckily for me this makes good business sense to Amazon: much better to send out mails than risk angry and frustrated customers who might just go elsewhere if they can't prove they are who they say they are and clog up customer service resources in the meantime.
But couldn't Lycos mail have sent us a farewell email? a little bit of warning, so we could forward things like mad and update accounts as required?
Or maybe they did and it got filed in their over-zealous spam folder system...
Oh well, goodbye Lycos mail, hello...?
Update!
Clarification straight from the horse's mouth:
" The reports and rumors that you are hearing about an impending shutdown concern Lycos.co.uk and their European services such as Lycos Mail UK (@lycos.co.uk) and the Tripod UK hosting. It is Lycos.co.uk that has announced their shutdown. The UK company licensed the Lycos/Tripod name and some technology years ago, but has NOTHING to do with the original/core Lycos and/or Tripod services that are run here in the USA."