Re: NON Packard club foolishness

Posted by BH On 2011/4/5 20:39:05

I also received a link, without comment, to that piece on April 1. Due to the passing of a long-time friend earlier in the week, I wasn't even thinking about April Fool's Day. Yet, as I reached the end of the Shumer story, something in the adjacent column caught my eye. A study correlating cancer rates with polka dancing with challenges of racial biaswas a pretty good tip-off.

Thinking a little tit-for-tat was in order, I responded to the sender, later that evening, with thanks for the heads-up and to let him know that I would be doing my civic duty to help get this once-proud country out of the ditch by sending my last club directory to Shumer's NYC office - first thing next AM. (Of course, I made no such mailing.)

Now, I can see why some people might not have realized this "news" was a joke. First, I think many people have probably never seen a genuine NY Times masthead, especially since newspapers have become rather passe in the digital age, and this one was dated March 28. More importantly, however, the Shumer piece was written so convincingly that many people were probably too pissed off to read any further, but simply sprang into action.

Regardless, I agree that this joke has likely planted a bad seed in the all-too-fertile mind of some elected official.