Much More Important Than Valentine's Day...

Pitchers and catcher report to spring training today!

They Can (Sort of) Write, But They Can't Read

Once again, WSFS (through the Mark Protection Committee) has received an e-mail from someone purports to be an author and who does appear to have gone to the WSFS web page but not actually read it, and has written us this query:

could you send us the online link to download the rules, eligibility and so forth for this award?

I cut and pasted that question right out of the author's e-mail, including the inability to capitalize the first word of a sentence. I'm not going to provide any other information about the author, other than to say I've never heard of him.

These questions are easy to answer -- the Official Answerer of Queries will doubtless send him a Bedbug Letter when he gets around to it -- but it would be even easier if the people who wrote these queries looked on the same page as where they probably got our address, because it explains it in short form and then links you on to a longer-form version of the answers.

I'm not really sure how much easier we can make this for people. Possibly some folks have a hard time wrapping their minds around the concept of a literary award that doesn't require a formal application process and an elite panel of judges.

Mistakes Canceling Out

After lunch today, I had time for a walk, and the weather was nice, too -- I didn't even need my jacket. I had an errand -- pick up the pair of shoes I had left for re-soling at the shop up in the center at the top of the hill. When I got there, I presented my ticket marked for pickup today, and was told that unfortunately, they were still working on them. No problem, I said; I'll come back tomorrow.

Heading back to my office, I realized that it's just as well for me the shoes were not ready, as I had almost no cash in my wallet and the shop does not take credit cards. I had meant to stop at the bank on my way to the shoe repair shop, but forgot. Ah, well, nobody at all would even have known had I not decided to record such trivia here.

They're Going to be Disappointed

Because I have a Google alert on the WSFS marks, I sometimes find myself seeing web pages, blogs, etc. that I would definitely never see. This includes "private" blogs that don't have any security on them other than nobody knowing the address; however, Google finds things. Anyway, I've just this evening seen someone post a blog entry on a blog to which I can't respond because I'm not on the "team" saying how much s/he is looking forward to attending this year's Worldcon in LA. I checked the date -- February 14, 2007 -- so it's not a year-old entry just now getting popped. I hope s/he is set straight by his/her friends soon.