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Randy Cassingham's BlogHistorical Details and Author's Notes from This is True® - the First For-Profit E-mail Publication (and Still Going Strong). |
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Secret Identity
It took a while, but I've finally started to get the question from readers: "Are you the same Randy Cassingham that wrote the book on the Dvorak keyboard?" Yes -- surely one Randy Cassingham in the world is enough.
Don't Say I Didn't Tell You So
I had spoken about spam here and there in True, but in this issue I published the first installment of what would become my Spam Primer -- a warning that unsolicited e-mail advertising was now officially a serious problem on the net.
H.U. -- A Prequel
The "Honorary Unsubscribe" doesn't exist yet, but this week's Premium issue -- the first Premium edition ever -- had something at the top that previewed the idea:
Honorary Unsubscribe
Without any announcement, the first "Honorary Unsubscribe" runs in True.
A Moment for a Serious Issue
I was quite honored last week to get a copy of the new Breast Cancer Resource Guide of Massachusetts, which lists This is True as a leading Humor Resource for victims of breast cancer. The Resource Guide is an excellent compendium of information and pointers toward more details about this killer disease, against which progress is being made. They also ran a brief story I told them, which I will take the space to repeat here:
Boulder Economics Institute
I gave a talk this week at the Economics Institute here in Boulder, which is attached to the University of Colorado.
The institute "prepares" economics and business students from abroad for graduate studies here with crash courses in American culture. It was very interesting to speak to them about American media in the age of the Internet, and the changes that the Net is bringing about.
Who to Choose?
The recent Honorary Unsubscribe for Cleveland Amory brought a lot of mail, such as this from Rick in California:
"How did I miss that? I saw him on TV just a few weeks ago. Randy, another reason to subscribe is the honorary unsubscribe."
April Fools and the Internet Police
April Fools -- with emphasis on the fools. Yesterday I had the joy of watching a great April Fool's joke unfold. My friends Ray at "Joke-A-Day" and Cathie at the Centre for the Easily Amused staged a big fight for April Fools Day, calling each other names, etc. That's cute, but that wasn't the joke -- even though their messages to their readers were dated "March 32".
Another friend, Vince Sabio of the excellent if occasional HumourNet newsletter, registered the nifty domain "internet-police.net". So the "angry" Ray and Cathie invited their readers to complain about the other to the "Internet Police"! And well over a thousand Amused and Joke-A-Day readers did just that, partly to complain about the hacking of Ray's web site, pinned on Cathie's fans, that was actually a fine vandalism job that Ray did himself.
HeroicStories is Born
I'm pleased to announce my new project: a new e-mail publication with stories about interesting real people. It's a spinoff of the popular "Honorary Unsubscribe" feature in True.
I briefly considered doing an "all obituaries, all the time" publication, but that wasn't really what I wanted. The point of the H.U.s, to me, is to celebrate interesting people who made a contribution, but didn't really get much press when they died. But why wait for them to die? And why, if they are dead, do we have to honor them immediately, then move on?
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.
Blasphemy II -- The Birth of GOOHF
You know what I like about my job? It's fun. Last week, I reported on the rantings of "Santa". Sometimes, of course, it's tedious to get rants piled on me, but more often than not it's really very fun to get even that kind of mail, especially when I egg them on a bit like I did with her. After looking through her comments, Premium subscriber Ed in Connecticut dropped me a note suggesting I "institute the 'Get A Life' Award for weenies like Santa. This could be bigger than the Darwin Awards, I tell you."
And he's right: it could be! But somehow that triggered something else in my rather warped brain: if Santa can condemn me to hell at the snap of her mind, why shouldn't I have the power to counter her? She shouldn't have a Monopoly on this stuff! So I had 2,000 "Get Out Of Hell Free" cards printed; I designed them myself. I'm letting readers get some too, charging just enough to pay for the printing, packing and postage. The orders are already streaming in -- including an order for 500 for Rev. Rus (True's consulting pastor). That, dear readers, is downright fun! :-)
Saving Readers from Hell, One Card at a Time
Pascal in France writes, "How can you stand all the complaints and rants you get? Doesn't anyone send good mail anymore? I absolutely *love* TRUE and the way it makes me think about issues. But the whiny people that write you, is that all you get?"
No indeed! I just think readers would get bored if all I ran were the kudos, which indeed come in with much more frequency than the complaints. Indeed, just the notes included with the orders this week for our "Get Out of Hell Free" cards have been great. David in Washington says "I'll forward one to Bill Gates. He probably feels he needs one about now." (I sent an extra one, so it could be "on me". :-)
Continue reading "Saving Readers from Hell, One Card at a Time" »
The Sabre Rattles
Readers have really loved my "Get Out of Hell Free" cards. They're even featured in the current (October) issue of Playboy (one of their editors saw them, liked them, and asked if they could write about them).
Meanwhile, a few readers wondered if I'd have a problem with Hasbro (which owns the Monopoly board game); I pointed them to a page on my site that talks about parody, and what's allowed under copyright and case law. That fairly detailed explanation of parody, however, wasn't enough for Hasbro: I heard from their lawyers last week demanding I "cease and desist" from offering the cards. My reply did not require that they have one of the cards to counter my curse, but I was tempted.
HS: Unclear on the Concept
"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!"
Shifting the Spam Problem -- to You
While reading the news I saw an item that to help with the spam problem, ISP Earthlink plans to implement a "challenge-response" system. When someone sends an e-mail to someone using such a system, the sender gets a "challenge" they have to respond to. Typically, the sender has to click through to a web page and enter a code number, and then the message gets delivered.
Imagine having to do that 120,000 times.
Bonzer Debut
I've added a new weekly feature to True: the "Bonzer Web Site of the Week" has been added just above the Honorary Unsubscribe. I accept site suggestions for this feature only from Premium subscribers (yes, I'll be checking).
New Project: True-a-Day
I've been wanting to do this for at least four years. And, finally, my late 20th Century vision has been realized.
For years, people have been asking if it was OK to put True stories on their web sites. I have, from time to time, given permission for specific stories to be posted on special request, but I have never given "blanket" permission for sites to put up "sample" stories at will. Then I had an idea on how to do it.
Yet Another New Project: Jumbo Joke
I shut down my "Randy's Random" e-mail publication a year and a half ago, and I still get people saying they miss it. RR was a place where I posted random bits of interesting humor that didn't fit in True. I stopped it for several reasons, including that it was a true pain to deal with Yet Another E-mailed Publication, there was no income involved, and plenty of other irritations.
A Failure to Grasp Reality
You know I write about idiots every week, but it's not all that often that I have to actually deal with them one on one, in real time. But I had one today. My "other" publication, as you probably know, is the True Stella Awards, which details real-but-stupid lawsuits.
Another Spinoff Site
Last week, as I was writing the announcement of the new archive site for the Honorary Unsubscribes, I mused about how I have "spun off" all the sections of True's web site that didn't really have anything to do with True's "mission". Then it hit me: I had spun off all the unrelated content except for the Bonzer Web Site of the Week. Since that's nearly a clone of the new Honorary Unsubscribe archive, it was very simple to do "Bonzer" too: it was up and running by Monday! Another great job by my site programmer, Leo of Ask Leo. There are some great sites that are well worth your time: http://www.BonzerSites.com
Separated by a Common Language
It's been 27(!) years since I was in England, but I vowed "I shall return" and I'll be wading ashore in mid October. As some of you know, I'm writing a book for the True Stella Awards about the loss of common sense in our civil courts, and I think there's no better way to see how our court system got started than to visit the place where Anglo Saxon Common Law began.
New Project: Groxx
I mentioned in my author's notes recently that I was working on a new site. It's been in beta testing by Premium subscribers, and I'm finally ready to open it up to a wider audience.
