Followup: Washington Post LiveWire Spam -- Oopsie

Here's a followup to my impotent fist-shaking about the unsolicited, opt-out Washington Post LiveWire DNC coverage e-mail from yesterday -- after a serendipitous encounter with a Postie (and former AOLer) familiar with the situation, we can safely invoke Hanlon's Razor:

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

As I suspected, the opt-out e-mail blast was a mistake, accidentally sent to the wider audience instead of the smaller one. It seems that there was a bad call by an inexperienced staffer, combined with a lack of process and control.

Admittedly, it was something of a tempest in a teapot; part of the reason why this perceived violation was so noticeable is that, to date, WashingtonPost.com has been a trusted source (at least, when it comes to self-marketing). For such a rookie mistake to appear was... jarring.

Additionally, as I had surmised, my blog entry is currently the #1 search result for the term post livewire. So I got that going for me.

Tags: washington post, livewire, opt-out, e-mail marketing

Unnecessary Followups: Steak & Ale, Stinky Bandages

I should have mentioned this last week (when it would have been mildly relevant, since news of the Steak & Ale bankruptcy had just come out), but I worked at Steak & Ale the summer after I graduated from college.

Yes, kids: The economy stunk on ice back in the early '90s, too. Suck it up.

I was doing an internship in NYC weekdays, then working part-time nights and weekends as a prep cook. It mostly meant making salads, so I learned how to use a chef's knife properly (at least, when it came to vegetables.)

Anyway, I still have the t-shirt:

I never did eat there, though.

In other followups:

* The smell emanating from the Tegaderm bandage covering my road rash has progressed from sweaty fat guy to dead, sweaty fat guy. It's seriously making me ill. Fortunately, it's starting to itch, so I don't think I'll need it for much longer.

* DCRTV reports that 94.7 The Globe will be switching formats back to classic rock. If true, this means that my prediction wasn't wrong -- just late. (Eight months late.)

* In spite of my earlier doubts, it looks like I will, in fact, be headed to this year's Virgin Festival. So I got that going for me. (To keep things even, I missed out on Saturday's Fark Party at The Big Hunt, which I had been "definite" for, due to two competing birthday parties sandwiching it.)

* DCist notes that the City Paper reports that the WAKA vs. DC Kickball suit was quietly settled back in April. Commenting representatives of kickball365.com (Motto: "A forum for people who take kickball way, way too seriously") haughtily note that they reported this in May, to a resounding chorus of chirping crickets.

Tags: steak & ale