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Since Asylum started shipping, I've received a few dozen emails that read something along the lines of
Hello
Today I received a copy of the book on your site called "Asylum." To the best of my knowledge, I didn't order it. Do you know why I would have received it? There are a few ways you could receive Asylum without having ordered it. 1. We know each other, either personally or via the Internet, and I (or chet) think you'd get a kick out of it, or want to deliver a surprise, or a blast from the past. Normally you wouldn't have to ask, but it may be that you don't know who zeno or chet are in the real world. Wicked, huh. 2. It could also be that while you don't know me/us back, I/we just respect you, or what you do, or what you stand for, or used to do, or used to stand for, and figure you should be getting something back. If that's the case, we sincerely hope you get all warm and fuzzy inside to the point your next doctor visit has the poor specialist concerned about your elevated levels of internal warm and fuzzy. 3. One of our closer friends apparently thinks you're very cool. They may be your spouse or some kid always sitting in the back for a seminar you taught 10 years ago. I suppose they could also be the milkman, at least theoretically. Except we don't know any milkmen. But I know a plumber, so. Odds are it's academia-related however. 4. Someone I don't know at all figured out how to fill in a shipping address different from the one associated with his/her credit card. It's not that hard to do. But I imagine they'd be letting you know, at least eventually. So if they don't, it's probably one of the other 3. I don't mind answering the emails, sometimes I know the person, and I tell them so, or I don't and just giggle. Sometimes I don't, so I yell across the house. I mean, I make a request to the other available name server. Even if that fails, I'll write a nice response. But I figure there's plenty of people who could be saved the head scratching, and aren't all that fond of investigative emailing. So, for their benefit, the mystery is explained here. 12 people are edified. However, 84 people don't know what edified means. |