“Chaos” (i.e., he didn’t stand by his own comment enough to sign a real name) in Massachusetts writes:
What is it with you???? Why is it when someone really famous who has given an impact on America, you find someone who didn’t even matter and place them under the Honorary Unsubscribes? Chuck Jones passes away, someone who has impacted cartoons for MORE than 60 years and you pick some guy who sold newspapers for most of his life????? Worse enough is when you chose someone else other than GEORGE HARRISION! One of the original Beatles who changed music forever and you picked someone who really didn’t do anything. That is pretty sad!
What I think is sad is that people think that I should jump on a publicity bandwagon and tell my readers things they already know while ignoring interesting real people that had a positive impact on our lives. That, sir, is pop culture at its worst.
For instance, the Los Angeles Times, the mainstream newspaper of record that has Hollywood in its front yard, didn’t even have a staff obit of today’s honoree, Hollywood producer Mimi Roth, even though she was a groundbreaker and, as far as I can tell, died in L.A.
True’s Honorary Unsubscribe is meant to honor people of impact and substance that the mainstream media has mostly ignored, and I think I’ve done a great job of it. Visit the Honorary Unsubscribe archive and decide for yourself whether I’m meeting that goal. (And no need to write me to tell me to keep doing it that way — I don’t plan any changes in the way I do the HUs!)
– – –
Bad link? Broken image? Other problem on this page? Use the Help button lower right, and thanks.
This page is an example of my style of “Thought-Provoking Entertainment”. This is True is an email newsletter that uses “weird news” as a vehicle to explore the human condition in an entertaining way. If that sounds good, click here to open a subscribe form.
To really support This is True, you’re invited to sign up for a subscription to the much-expanded “Premium” edition:
Q: Why would I want to pay more than the minimum rate?
A: To support the publication to help it thrive and stay online: this kind of support means less future need for price increases (and smaller increases when they do happen), which enables more people to upgrade. This option was requested by existing Premium subscribers.
The concept of the H.U. isn’t the only concept ‘Chaos’ didn’t get; everyone, even ‘Chaos’, matters to someone, and made an impact on somebody. I liked the concept of the H.U. right from your first one. I can read about the prominent anywhere, and usually hear more about them than I care to. The people you pick may not have the notoriety, but usually their contributions are seen or used daily, or were basic to developing what is now commonplace. In the rare cases that I don’t recognize either their name or their contribution, I can still appreciate what they are being honored for by you — and I will have learned something.
If ‘chaos’ had bothered to read at the top of [the free edition] — ‘Dispatched this week to readers in 195 countries’ — he might have realized that some who he considers ‘more important’ people actually aren’t known in other countries where other people might be more well known. To be quite honest with you I had absolutely no idea who Chuck Jones [or] the ‘newspaper guy’ was but now, thanks to TRUE, I know what both did.