For the last couple years, mostly as an experiment on what mailing lists I end up (but also just because it’s fun), I’ve been subscribing to various magazines with slightly fake names. For example, when we subscribed to TV Guide (briefly, and only as a result of Will’s school’s magazine drive), the name of record was “Sophie Wannamaker,” aka “Stupid Dog” or just “the dog.” Surprisingly, Sophie didn’t receive much mail.
My latest name adventure has been with WIRED magazine, under the slightly fake Steve Skippy Krause. So far, the only junk mail that has come to Skippy has been from something called dwell, which is a sort yuppie/urbanite/sophisticate/quasi- house porn-like magazine– you know, where to get your stainless steel kitchen appliances, where to pick out the perfect $1000 light fixtures, art projects made from cardboard boxes, and so forth. Something I’d thumb through at the dentist office or even accept as a gift, but not something I’d order on purpose.
I had received two pieces of mail from the dwell people so far: something I threw away a long time ago, and then that which is pictured here: some mailing labels (which I had ignored and which Annette rescued for me). Sweet, huh?
So call me Skippy, but don’t call me late to dinner.
You can rest assured that I will call you Skippy from now on. I may even chance the link on my blog.