The following story is pretty good. What happened after could only happen in the Twilight Zone of the Internet.
Reader Feedback
Isn’t Life Already Short Enough?
A story in the 22 July 2001 issue really captured my interest — it amazes me how people will adapt to their technology, rather than make their technology adapt to them.
Response to ZT: Let’s Mailbomb the Schools!
After yet more recent “zero tolerance” stories, the tenor of readers is “we want to do something about this!” I’ve had several questions like this, from Aaron in California:
Get to Know a Cop Today
I figured last week’s headline (Black Skin Gives Better Protection than White: Study — AFP) would raise a few eyebrows. Well, not the headline, really, but my lead-in “slug” for it: “Except From the Police”.
Grasp Of The Obvious
Email makes it easy to complain. Too easy. I find people will literally complain about anything they see online.
Religious Freedom: Only for Christians?
Bryant in Kansas, responding to a couple of recent stories that touched on religion, says: “I’ve grown weary of your newsletter, and your anti-Christian bent. I always wonder why anything ‘Christian’ gets blasted and not any other religion? Don’t tell me that it’s because Christians are so narrow minded. I won’t buy into that one.”
Idiots, or Not Idiots — That is the Question
I got this most interesting letter from a reader:
They’re Trying to Make it Hot in Here
Blasphemy! Yep, that’s what I’m guilty of, if you believe “Santa”, one of several people who wrote about a story in the 23 April 2000 issue. Here’s the story:
Is Nothing Sacred?
The Headline of the Week in last week’s edition, from the Associated Press, noted “Strike Over, Twinkie Shortage Ends”. It was slugged by my comment, “And All of America Breathes a Huge Sigh of Relief”. It’s pretty rare that people comment on the headlines, and even more rare that the comment is negative.
Why oh Why2K?
or, Ponderings on the New Millennium
“I would like to take you seriously, but to do so would affront your intelligence.” –William F. Buckley, conservative newspaper columnist.
It all started as a bit of musing in my author’s note in the first issue of the year 2000. Then, the more comments from readers I published, the more they streamed in. Let’s recap. In the issue published 7 January 2000, I pondered:
Museum of Geopolitical Insanity
My recent story on preserving a nuclear missile silo brought a fair amount of mail. Let’s start with the story:
A Real Honorary Unsubscribe
This week the Honorary Unsubscribe marks the first time that I know that the “honoree” was indeed a This is True reader (it’s called “honorary” for a reason!) But in this case, Jerry was, in fact, one of my best friends — and a Premium subscriber.
Reduce, Reuse — Then Recycle
On Friday, we finally caught up with the pre-orders for the reprints of Volume 1 of the True book collection. One recipient complained: “I was bummed that my books came packaged with Styrofoam ‘peanuts’. I can’t believe that any world-conscious business would buy those dang things and pollute our planet! Can’t you use something else? There is a new product out that uses recycled newspapers, for instance.”
Why Don’t More People Hate Me?
After running some reader letters, David in Maryland wrote in reply: “How come you never run any of them that are from people who are not enamoured of you, if it is considered a ‘letters to the editor’ space?”
Steve Wozniak: a Satisfied True Reader
(Updated: See below.)
Rants and Raves over “Austin Powers”
One of the first highly controversial stories in True, with some readers loving it, and others hating it. So let’s start with the story that started it all (in the 18 July 1999 issue):
I Wanted to Hear Some Complaints
Complaints? Really? Really.
Good Clean Fun
I’m in Southern California, where I’ll again be giving the after-dinner wake-up speech at the Skeptics Society’s annual conference in Pasadena, Calif. I have the delightful job of presenting an “award” for the dumbest thing of 1998 (culled, of course, from True!) to warm up the crowd for the Keynote speaker. The theme this year: “Reinventing Evolution: The Great Debate at the High Table of Evolutionary Theory.”
Fun Mail, Funny Male
While I’m not always able to reply to email, I love getting comments from readers — I do personally read them all. I even appreciate the bad stuff. I prefer the fun stuff, of course, but even rants can be useful. Here’s one of each type, so you get the idea:
Your Source for Medical Info…?
A U.S. doctor who reads True was distressed over the story on “exploding head syndrome”.