Comments on: Just the facts, ma’am

By: Cynthia

Cynthia — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 07:30:51 +0000

Tim, I am so sorry you had to go through this. I was id theft a few years ago. I did not have a car, so I was takiing the bus. I left my purse behind. I know stupid me, I did realise it pretty quickly, and went back to the bench, the purse was there but the wallet was gone. A few weks later I got several bounced check notices even though I closed everything that day and the bank did not check my signature. That mess tool me several months to clean up. Jeremy, I do agree with you that banks should bare some of the responsibilty.

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 02:55:55 +0000

Thanks, all, for comments and stories.

Jeremy, the story of your friend Chrissy just makes me heartsick. Of course, as an artist eager to make a sale it would be incredibly difficult to think suspicious thoughts of someone who has expressed an interest. They’ve already demonstrated their fine taste, so how could they be suspect? I’m so sorry that happened to her.

Ruben, do all parents of triplets think only in bulk discount? I mean, we’re talking about your children’s education here. Also, aren’t both their parents educators? Is it like the tailor’s kids running around naked?

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 01:47:50 +0000

What’s next, Bryan — you’re going to start giving money to Barack Hussein Obama?

By: bw

bw — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 22:50:58 +0000

How about this one? (see below.) I usually delete such things after the first sentence, but it seemed like this person may have seen something I’d written about paranoia and conspiracy and might be thinking I could help her/him out. I thought about just buying the books and mailing them, but chances are this person just owns a bookstore! Ultimately, though, I follow the rule that I don’t respond to email I didn’t solicit and whose sender I don’t know. For all I know there could a computer on the other end just waiting to gobble up my personal information — but the message is certainly designed to get at someone like me: guilty liberal American academic:

Salamualeikum, (a common Islamic greeting in Arabic which
means ” peace on you” )

Thanks for giving your email….

I am a Ph. D. student in the University of Baghdad / College of Arts / Dept. of English. I am working on “Paranoia and Conspiracy in Postmodern American Novel”. The main writers and novels in this study are Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49, Don DeLillo’s White Noise, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five and Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum. I have a great difficulty in getting the texts, references and sources. I live in Iraq and the libraries suffer a great and serious shortage in books.
I plead you to help me the way you can.

Thank you.
[name withheld]

If I was left to choose for myself I would have strayed away but Allah Almighty has chosen for me the right path, Islam, the gift of gifts.

By: swells

swells — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 22:30:18 +0000

The photo of David Duchovny and son in front of a window so bright that there’s obviously a giant pro-photo reflective shield to front-light their faces is really by far the best touch. No, it’s not a million-dollar outtake from an ad photo shoot, just a quick snap my wife took at our mansion of “Me and my son.” I love it! Who knew Nigerian princes had kids so blond?