simpleton

Vote for Feinstein

Everybody believes that when you send a letter to a senator's office, all you get back is a form letter thanking you for your attention, etc.

I thought so too, until I actually sent a letter to Senator Dianne Feinstein this July. Feinstein's response was thorough, timely and relevant. A section:

...I appreciate your concerns for potential American investment in the [Middle East]. On July 31, Secretary Albright decided to lift a decade-long official ban on travel by U.S. citizens to Lebanon, based on her assessment that Lebanon has made significant strides in restoring order ... since the end of the civil war in 1990... Although this decision remains under the jurisdiction of the Department of State, please know that as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I will continue to carefully monitor (etc.)

Clearly, somebody on the Senator's staff went to the trouble to read my letter for content and draft a formulaic but clearly unique response.

[a real senatorial letter]

In an age of bogus mass customization, I'm impressed that the office of a Senator from the most populace state in the Union would go to the trouble to respond individually to a nobody. That's enough to win my vote, and simpleton's official endorsement.

And I'll even throw in a punchline ...

You don't want to know what I'd do for a night in the Lincoln bedroom!

Vote for simpleton.

Back to the letters.

Previously in simpleton:

Tuesday: Great Hoaxes: Five stories that should be true.
Monday: Missed Opportunities: Everybody's got 'em, but only once
Friday: simpleton unplugged: The ugliest page on the web.
Thursday: T&A Jokes Explained: More Taylorism for quipsters
Wednesday: Reader Mail: Volume 2
Tuesday: Internal bleeding: Don't blame the taxman

A century of simpletons in the simpleton archive.

Tomorrow:
Two-Front Comedy!