Reaction Letters - The Consumerist Verizon article

• Roger Angell "The New Yorker" -- commented on Everyone Knows How To Handle A Stolen Checkbook Except For Verizon

"Hi, Hariette:
Weird Tampans? I guess that's folks in Tampa... Well, no. I've been there often for spring training, as you may recall, but only met restaurant or hotel folks. I got to know some nice Cubans in a Cuban Sandwich place but they didn't seem weird. But I'll think more about this."

• Image of SuhinaBloobla SuhinaBloobla -- commented on Everyone Knows How To Handle A Stolen Checkbook Except For Verizon
6:43 PM on Sat Jul 4 2009

That crazy Verizon guy T kept talking about Harriett being a writer. They screwed up her account, why did they keep asking personal questions? I would be super offended. But since T knew she was a journalist, didn't he assume that she would possibly write about him? You would think this would cause T to chill with the cursing and other craziness! He was one scary dude, and verizon is the wackest company.

• Image of IgnatiusEumaeus IgnatiusEumaeus -- commented on Everyone Knows How To Handle A Stolen Checkbook Except For Verizon
4:58 PM on Mon Jul 13 2009

"Hariette touches upon a universal frustration many of us deal with when talking to faceless bureaucrats. I found this piece well written and hilariously entertaining. The dialogue was so fluid, I felt like I was experiencing her phone calls and her frustration! A verizon employee admitting he's calling you from his car phone?! How can you not find the humor in this situation? I absolutely loved it!"

• BathroomDuck commented on Everyone Knows How To Handle A Stolen Checkbook Except For Verizon

"While reading about the Texan, was anyone else reminded of Melvin Palmer from Boston Legal?"

http://consumerist.com/5307125/#c14039320 12:28 AM on Jul 4

• floraposte commented on Everyone Knows How To Handle A Stolen Checkbook Except For Verizon

"@Muhammed T Prophet: Wow, victim-blaming, denying victim-blaming, and "Who does x???" in one post, and it was first."

http://consumerist.com/5307125/#c14035568 6:06 PM on Jul 3

• christoj879 commented on Everyone Knows How To Handle A Stolen Checkbook Except For Verizon

"I was floored reading this."

http://consumerist.com/5307125/#c14035603 6:09 PM on Jul 3

• chris_d commented on Everyone Knows How To Handle A Stolen Checkbook Except For Verizon

"@Muhammed T Prophet: I agree with you that allowing Verizon to auto-debit your account is almost guaranteed to cause problems. But I really get sick of the smugness that goes on here."

http://consumerist.com/5307125/#c14035637 6:11 PM on Jul 3

• Name: Anthony subject: Web contact

Comments:" i just wanted to say i read your story about verizon and i think you are awesome."

• Christine commented on Everyone Knows How To Handle A Stolen Checkbook Except For Verizon

" Oh really, fuck all these fucking mass communications providers, I think like every other industry in this country they are in some kind of a unique death spiral the outcome of which is unclear (dead or alive or zombie....) and perhaps not as obvious as the current demise of the print media (you notice I said current, because I believe the dead rise)......arghhhh. So good for you for skewering 'em and as ever, just imagine being that guy on the other end of the line, wage slavery lives! If that were a child prostitute in Thailand, it would again be an obvious "crime" in this present moment....whereas the purpose of the (post) industrial worker and his or her relationship to "work" , whether that has any meaning at all....it just looks worse than the dark ages or before the Revolution, since so many people have lost their faith (in religion and now nearly value-less money....)."

These are from Corpse 3 Letters archive

Hariette Surovell and Her Readers

Subject: Salon dismissed/Lamott disemboweled

Your story on Lamott is AMAZING. Everyone here in San Francisco just LOVES her and I hit my forehead and wonder how or why she's always doing these radio gigs and telling people how to do things. You, girl, you're slinging artichokes at the giants and I'm right there... right there waaaay behind you, because when it comes to writer folks, I'm never quite sure what I'm talking about. See, I think Stephen King is genious (even though I haven't read him since PET SEMETARY came out when I was in high school). Formula? Sure, why not. Plays come in three parts; screenplays are 120 pages. I don't care. I just hope to GOD my books never, ever get big enough for YOU to review. Yours truly, Erika Lopez (San Francisco)

Subject: Lordy Lordy!

Having published a couple of essays in Salon.com myself (and they're damn lucky to have 'em too), I couldn't help but chortle over your piece in EC about that site! Especially that ratty-head psycho Anne Lamott.

But I thought Salon was just soooo over the top, West-Coast, Bay-Area blather that I was inspired to start my own e-zine, WaySouth. Now I can blather away with over-the-top, Southern-oriented nonsense to my heart's content.

http://www.waysouth.com.

Enjoyed your piece a whole lot...

Grayson Daughters

Subject: Wait, is this Lamott woman real?

Yours was the first essay I read in the online Exquisite Corpse, and your informal style nails the point about this author from Salon magazine deftly. Still, I must wonder: Are you sure this woman isn't, say, fictional? Maybe she's a personality projection by the publishers. I'm a tad scared to check with Salon (maybe I'll examine the phone book) to confirm she isn't, say, an outcast from the old Processed Word zine or perhaps the state-mandated therapy for a child-beater. Just a thought, as the idea that any professional magazine would pay a wacko except by direct deposit...maybe that's it. They're not a professional magazine. Maybe you've hit on something else: that Salon is less a publication as a Geocities for hacks. Keep up the fab work! Dante Blando, Utica, NY

Subject: Birdbrain by Birdbrain

I just read your piece about Anne Lamott in EC. I thought it was mean spirited. Thank you. The only thing worse than reading her, is listening to her read her stuff. Whining, monotone, zombie. (No disrespect to Zombies intended.) I think I'd like to hear what you have to say about Garrison Keillor. Matt Eggleston

Subject: Re: Salon dismissed/Lamott disemboweled

Is your website "Panix.com"? I'll check it out. I'd actually found out about you because I was at home writing or fucking around, with the radio on, and the Russian-sounding guy that does commentaries was on "Talk of the Nation" about scary stories. (I'm horrible with names.) They said he edits "Exquisite Corpse.org", and so I checked it out. I'd only heard of Salon last year when someone told me they gave me a bad review of one of my books, and I haven't really checked it out since. So of course, your title got my attention. And your writing's really good. You cut right through it all and you're not too cool. I can't STAND all of these snide writers who're just TOO COOL. Boring. Erika

Subject: "Exquisite Corpse"

Hariette, I enjoyed your piece Dissing 'Salon' Again in Andrei's EXQUISITE CORPSE immensely, as well as all the referenced pieces included. I only have one theoretical question. I know you are an Editor, et all;...but are you misspelling MILLENNIUM (on your URL) for some reason of artistic license, or is it an insider's joke I am failing to pick up on? Just wonderin'. Ms. Paris Tirone ptirone@cdsnet.net

Subject: Re: Birdbrain by Birdbrain

Sorry to bug you again. But I wanted to talk you into listening to Bride of Christ Looney Lady Lamott read one of her own pieces. You must savor the time lengthening effect of her drone. Listen to her often and you may not live forever, but you'll know what it feels like. I wonder which ring of hell her voice would be the sound track for. You decide. The site is http://www.thislife.org/ (This American Life) look for the program from June 5, 1998 entitled "Music Lessons". You can listen to the show via Realaudio. David Sedaris also reads something on this show and does a dead on imitation of Billie Holiday singing the Oscar Meyer Bologna song. You won't be sorry! Matt

Subject: Lamott

Man, are you funny! randi@together.net

Subject: SaLon SaLon

Hariette - Was headed over to see what musical misstep Salon had made this week, when I clicked over to EC instead and came across your spot-on pieces on their ivory web-tower. While I may eventually cringe at the memory of my dogged pursuit of various editors there, I will savor this sense of liberation as long as the vibe can be prolonged. Thanks! regards...JoE Joe.Silva@Premtec.com

Subject: YEAH Hariette!

God, I thought I was the only one who thought that the Anne Lamott articles in "Mothers Who Think" were a bunch of claptrap. Yes, I am paying attention. I just don't have your eloquence! Merci. kac Kac04@aol.com

Subject: salon.com

dear hariette surlyvell, thank you for your discreditation of saloon.com and in particular the work of anne lamott. i have never visited salmon.com nor have i read the writings of ms. lummox but it is quite possible that i might have in the future. That is, until you stopped me. Where were you when 'Howard the Duck' came out? i thought, "wow, a george lucas film about an extra-terrestrial duck. this is gonna be great!" i wish i had been forwarned. (entre nous, it's not a good movie). it seems clear to me now that this anne lambchop just doesn't know what the internet's for! maybe she should take a class or something or get one of those internet books for dummies. what do you think?

i often do internet wide searches on "black butts" and it was only a matter of time before i got to the salaam.com article (probably right before your "review" of salsa.com). when you want a big black butt, there's no time to waste at the new yorker of the internet! that's for darn sure! thanks again for steerin' me straight. mark podojil