Letters to the Editor
[Re: Loose Cannon: Snap, Crackle, Pop-Up Ads, Direct Newsline, Apr. 19, 2004]:
Thanks for the Boomtown Rats reference in your column about Google’s Gmail on Monday. I meant to write to you sooner, but I was too busy shuffling my papers and swiveling in my chair, even though nothing happened today … or Monday, or Tuesday, or Wednesday. I woke up late, I had a headache, I went back to bed. Blah, blah, blah. (It ain’t so neat to admit defeat.)
Any-HOODLE … “The Fine Art of Surfacing” has been a favorite of mine since I “discovered” the Boomtown Rats in 1980 as an exchange student in French-speaking Belgium. (“Toupee? Isn’t that a French word?”) When I saw the faux pop-up ad for BOOMTOWN RATS in your column, I had to go back and re-read the previous line to catch the “Monday” reference.
Subtle genius. Only you and Gmail. In any case, I got it. So allow me now — with benefit of the personal “back story” — to pay you a sincere compliment: Damn, that was good.
I enjoy reading your columns. I’ve always said they’re as good as gold. I’ll bet your telex machine is kept so clean as you type to a waiting world.
Thanks again for the trip down memory lane. I’d better get back to work now … they’ve nailed me to the laptop and chained me to my desk.
Now you know why I don’t like Mondays.
Scott E. Huch
President, The Delta Group, Inc.
Annandale, VA