Another story from the archives
Back in 1987, I made a bicycle trip across northern Italy and into Yugoslavia. At a village called Montagnola, I met an Englishman and his wife ("Mike" and "Mel") who were bicycling from London to Peking. They were writing short articles for a magazine in the UK about their trip, in a way that would have been done by blog nowadays.
When I returned to the US, I wrote to the publisher, asking if I could see the back issues of the magazines in which Mike and Mel's articles appeared. This was the 80's, so when I say "wrote" I really mean that I took a piece of paper, wrote a letter on it in ink, and sent it in an envelope to England.
Many weeks passed without response; no magazines, no letters. But then one day, the postman brought me an envelope from the publishers of Celebrity Magazine, including a check for £25.00. I was a bit puzzled, and not so very delighted, since it isn't very easy to cash a check for £25.00 in the US. So I sent the check back, asking that they might donate it to Mike and Mel's trip, but also asking them if they might see fit to actually send me the magazines I had requested.
Many weeks later, I received a letter, along with an envelope filled with half a dozen magazines. The cover letter explained, "I've enclosed a copy of Celebrity, dated March 3rd - the issue which contained your letter about those intrepid cyclists, Mel and Mike!"
The first page of that first magazine explained the £25.00 - have a look:
There's a £25.00 award each week for the best letter to the editor, an award that it seems my inquiry about back issues of the magazine won for that week! If you see the other letters to the editor (you can see a few on this page), you can come to understand how this could be.
Now turn your attention to the letter itself - attributed to one Dean Armstrong, from Ohio, United States. If you know my last name, you might be as confused as I was - who is Dean Armstrong, and what does his letter have to do with mine? Apparently "Allemang" was just a bit too, oh, I don't know, French maybe, to use, so they butched it up and made me "Armstrong". Also, the text of the letter was changed considerably - I regret that I don't have the original letter, but certainly I would not have expressed the sentiment, "Rather them than me!" (rather something about just the opposite). My roommate at the time even suggested that I might complain about how I was misrepresented by this statement. Until I reminded him that it was Mr. Armstrong, not me, to whom this statement was attributed.
In case you were wondering just what sort of magazine Celebrity is, I think that the cover of this issue might give you some idea:
I still have the other issues with Mike and Mel's articles, but I hadn't thought of them in years.
When I returned to the US, I wrote to the publisher, asking if I could see the back issues of the magazines in which Mike and Mel's articles appeared. This was the 80's, so when I say "wrote" I really mean that I took a piece of paper, wrote a letter on it in ink, and sent it in an envelope to England.
Many weeks passed without response; no magazines, no letters. But then one day, the postman brought me an envelope from the publishers of Celebrity Magazine, including a check for £25.00. I was a bit puzzled, and not so very delighted, since it isn't very easy to cash a check for £25.00 in the US. So I sent the check back, asking that they might donate it to Mike and Mel's trip, but also asking them if they might see fit to actually send me the magazines I had requested.
Many weeks later, I received a letter, along with an envelope filled with half a dozen magazines. The cover letter explained, "I've enclosed a copy of Celebrity, dated March 3rd - the issue which contained your letter about those intrepid cyclists, Mel and Mike!"
The first page of that first magazine explained the £25.00 - have a look:
There's a £25.00 award each week for the best letter to the editor, an award that it seems my inquiry about back issues of the magazine won for that week! If you see the other letters to the editor (you can see a few on this page), you can come to understand how this could be.
Now turn your attention to the letter itself - attributed to one Dean Armstrong, from Ohio, United States. If you know my last name, you might be as confused as I was - who is Dean Armstrong, and what does his letter have to do with mine? Apparently "Allemang" was just a bit too, oh, I don't know, French maybe, to use, so they butched it up and made me "Armstrong". Also, the text of the letter was changed considerably - I regret that I don't have the original letter, but certainly I would not have expressed the sentiment, "Rather them than me!" (rather something about just the opposite). My roommate at the time even suggested that I might complain about how I was misrepresented by this statement. Until I reminded him that it was Mr. Armstrong, not me, to whom this statement was attributed.
In case you were wondering just what sort of magazine Celebrity is, I think that the cover of this issue might give you some idea:
I still have the other issues with Mike and Mel's articles, but I hadn't thought of them in years.