The Boston Globe
- wadE
This won't be news to most of you regular forum readers... but...
Yesterday Alex alerted Wade and me to an email we got at our webmaster account:
I'm a feature writer at the Boston Globe and I'm putting something
together, on deadline, naturally, about junk mail and our poor herniated
mailmen. I like the message and the humor on your website. Can you give me
a telephone call at my office at the Globe, 617.929.XXXX. Or, perhaps, give
me a number where I can call you? I promise to sell it to NO ONE.
Jack Thomas
Alex checked it out, and there was a Jack Thomas who writes for the Globe.
I checked out the number, and the area code and prefix matched those for other numbers at the
Globe, so I called him up to check it out.
Left a message, and he called back about 20 minutes later.
At first he thought I was someone from www.stopjunk.com
returning his call. I explained that I was from simpleprop.com and he immediately knew which article
of mine he had read.
He had come across this article
I had written a couple years ago about junk mail and telemarketers.
Anyway, he was a peculiar guy, sounded in his late 50s, and had a great Boston accent. It
was like I was talking to Peter Gammons brother...the one who never left Bah-stahn.
We talked about different catalogs I receive at my house, if the amount of mail had decreased or
increased in recent times, if I had ever done anything to curtail the amount of mail
(called the companies up, or sent the mail back like I mention in the article), and if I put the
mail on a scale to determine it was 10 pounds.
Apparently sarcasm isn't one of Jack's strong suits. Although at the time I wrote that article I
would guess it was 1-2 pounds of mail per day we were getting. A lot of catalogs... Lilian Vernon,
Oriental Trading Company, Red Envelope, Harry & David...this list goes on. For a while we were
even getting 3 copies of Victoria's secret. One in my name, one in Chelle's and one just sent
to the address. :-D
We chatted for 10 minutes, he took my name and where I lived and that was that.
I sent an email to Chelle about what had happened, and she told me to check my SP account. Chelle
had written a potential gambit about... yup, you guessed it, Junk Mail!
So in my follow-up to Jack to say it was nice to chat with him and to give the not so subtle plug
to mention SP in his article, I added Chelle's article (which I'll publish soon).
Jack's reply...
Wade,
I've never met your wife, obviously, but right off the bat, I give
her high marks for timing.
Thanks for forwarding it.
` Jack Thomas
Anyway, I'll keep an eye out for the article
and give you an update then!
What do you think? Drop us a line at webmaster@simpleprop.com and give us some
feedback. Maybe we'll even run your letters in future Gambits. 'The Daily Gambit' is updated every weekday.
