I was going to write a short note about the great weekend in Stowe that Aimee and I just returned from, but this love letter appeared in my inbox this weekend, and I feel I have to put it up here in its entirety, author’s name withheld. I’m not making this up.
Hello,
After watching the film Dr. Zhivago, I searched the internet for some extra info about the movie. This led me to something you wrote a while back (in 1991) about how horrible the movie version is. Somehow that led me to your meachams.com website. I hope I don’t sound mean, but I feel like I should set you straight after reading the commentary of the pictures of your 1997 roadtrip across the U.S.
I just hate it when snooty east coast snobs bring out every possible “trashy” thing they can about the south and mid-west (such as the multiple pages of Elvis paired with your sarcastic commentary). I guess one can only expect this from an individual who knows nothing more about “road trips” than a commercialized one taken on interstates that lead you to countless diners and white trash entrepreneurial establishments that have somehow wielded their way into what ignorant east coast snobs expect to find in middle America!! With all your sarcastic comments about “commercialization” I didn’t expect your version of a road trip to be so obviously fraught with “commercialization.”
Next time you take what you call a “road trip,” try doing your research with books besides “commercialized” garbage like Roadside America. For some samples of good mid-western writing, try some of Linda Hasselstrom’s work about her ranching days in South Dakota (a state you unfortunately did not get to see on your “road trip”). A pretentious little snob like you (one would think) wouldn’t be so easily led around by the “commercialized” crap published by the money-grubbing morons that have overtaken the world.
Sincerely,
(name withheld)
Wichita, KS
After watching the film Dr. Zhivago, I searched the internet for some extra info about the movie. This led me to something you wrote a while back (in 1991) about how horrible the movie version is. Somehow that led me to your meachams.com website. I hope I don’t sound mean, but I feel like I should set you straight after reading the commentary of the pictures of your 1997 roadtrip across the U.S.
I just hate it when snooty east coast snobs bring out every possible “trashy” thing they can about the south and mid-west (such as the multiple pages of Elvis paired with your sarcastic commentary). I guess one can only expect this from an individual who knows nothing more about “road trips” than a commercialized one taken on interstates that lead you to countless diners and white trash entrepreneurial establishments that have somehow wielded their way into what ignorant east coast snobs expect to find in middle America!! With all your sarcastic comments about “commercialization” I didn’t expect your version of a road trip to be so obviously fraught with “commercialization.”
Next time you take what you call a “road trip,” try doing your research with books besides “commercialized” garbage like Roadside America. For some samples of good mid-western writing, try some of Linda Hasselstrom’s work about her ranching days in South Dakota (a state you unfortunately did not get to see on your “road trip”). A pretentious little snob like you (one would think) wouldn’t be so easily led around by the “commercialized” crap published by the money-grubbing morons that have overtaken the world.
Sincerely,
(name withheld)
Wichita, KS
That’s a first, as far as unsolicited email insults goes, in my ten or so years of having a website. I’ve had misguided, interested, complimentary, confused, and enthused, but never rude, insulting, and ignorant. And so it goes….
5 responses so far ↓
1 Twism // Feb 17, 2004 at 9:50 am
WOW. I’m speechless. Are you going to reply? In person? Can I come?
“I’m going to Wichita…a seven nation army couldn’t hold me back.”
2 Aimee // Feb 17, 2004 at 10:51 am
B–
You should post your reply. It was inspired and well crafted. Right now you have left everyone hanging….
3 Brian // Feb 17, 2004 at 3:09 pm
Here it is, then…
Hi-
How long have you been using the internet? Or, should I say, how long have you been interacting with other human beings? I can only assume that for both questions, the answer is “not very long,” followed by “not very well.” You seem to know that I’m a “snooty east coast snob,” an “ignorant east coast snob,” and a “pretentious little snob.” Excuse me, but who the hell are you? You know absolutely nothing about me, and in the seven years my website has been up, not one person from any coast has been as rude, ugly, and dare I say pretentious as you have just shown yourself to be by sending me such a nasty, unsolicited piece of trash email. Where do you get off telling me where I’m from? Who are you to “set me straight’? And where do you get off telling me what a road trip is, not to mention, why do you insist on putting it in quotes – do you not believe there’s such thing as a road trip? And don’t try to slip in some literary suggestions to mask the ignorant, hateful tone of your email. I’ve been to South Dakota, thank you very much, and found it stunning and well worth the trip; maybe if you’d done some more research on my site, you’d have seen my photos of the Badlands, and of the Corn Palace in Mitchell, which I found thanks to what you call the “commercialized garbage” that is the book “Roadside America.” Your arguments don’t even make any sense – my roadtrip was not “a commercialized one taken on interstates that lead you to countless diners and white trash entrepreneurial establishments that have somehow wielded their way into what ignorant east coast snobs expect to find in middle America!!” Is Cawker City, Kansas on an interstate? How about Beaver, Arkansas? Watson Lake, Yukon Territory? So I like french fries and milkshakes, and I’m interested in the history and mythology of Elvis; that doesn’t make me an “ignorant east coast snob.” Have you even read “Roadside America”? Do you have a sense of humor? Are you interested in the kinds of things that make America unique? Your email makes it clear that “no” is the answer to all of these questions. The next time you get riled up by something you read on the internet, try calming down a little bit, maybe think a second before you fire off an ignorant flame email to someone you’ve never met, and hold your ugly, stereotypical assumptions to yourself before poisoning the waters, ok? You sound like a perfectly nice, intelligent person, which is more credit than you’ve given me, but you come off pretty badly in this email. Why do you dislike me so much after looking at all of the fun I’ve had with friends on road trips I’ve taken? Just because my taste runs to the bizarre, and I like visiting Elvis shrines and the houses of eccentric Americans, alongside baseball stadiums, national parks, and museums, I’m not a bad person. I’m not a mean person, I’m not a “pretentious” person, and I’m not a “snob.” I think my tastes reflect an interest in the unique, the entertaining, and the truly American. Many people, strangers like yourself who’ve come across my site at random, have expressed their shared interests. They’re not all snobs. They’re not all from the East Coast. Heck, since you looked at my site, you must know I’m from Alaska. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts; I’m only sorry they are so ignorant, thoughtless, and uncalled-for.
Brian
4 Coz B. // Feb 17, 2004 at 4:54 pm
YEAH!! Take that!
A great reply to someone with a mighty large chip on their shoulder. I especially liked your points that many of the places you visited were not actually on interstates, and that you are not, in fact, from the east coast. (East is least?)
I also liked that you pointed out your flamer’s use of this grammatical non-device: Putting things in “quotation marks” for no reason, other than you think it seems literarical. (To coin a term). Reminds me of the phrase: “give it to myself.”
In conclusion, I also liked that you called them a nice, intelligent person. Smooth, and even more damaging than if you’d just ripped them right back.
Final score:
The Knucklz – 1 Chippy Kansas Web-surfer – 0
5 jess // Feb 17, 2004 at 11:01 am
oooh, yes! please post your reply.