Mother Jones, You Suck!

[iamthewalrus_3]

@Dr.Strangelove

The umlaut appeared because he meant to type an open-quote (which closed after “business”), using shift-quote, but instead managed to hit ctrl-shift-colon (i.e., he fat-fingered two keys at once). This puts some editors in a mode such that the next character (“e”, in this case) has an umlaut over it. The odd part is that the normal text editors in Chrome, Firefox, and IE don’t seem to have this feature. Either he’s using some weird old browser or writes in Word and C&Ps the text.

This Fall on an internet near you, Dr. Strangelove, Forensic Typographer.

“Help me, Doctor! I think my computer has a virus!”
“No, you must have just hit the caps lock key accidentally. Hardly a… capital offense”

::puts on sunglasses and strides away to I Can See For Miles::

[elucidator]

I dunno, something about fat fingers and somebody’s colon, and I just didn’t want to know… Input valves sort of shut down after that. Clank!

[Dallas_Jones]

@ralph124c

My wife just showed me an invoice, for a subscription renewal to “Mother Jones Magazine”. I never ordered this piece of trash, nor would I read it.
Nice try, you lying commies! You are using the same fraudulent tactics you accuse the ëvil big business"of!

A subscription to Mother Jones Magazine is mandated under the ACA, also known as Obamacare.

I am surprised that more people are not aware of this. We had to pass it before we could find out what is in it. But it is in there. Mamma told me.

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

@Wendell_Wagner

I’ve gotten, over the past year or so, a dozen or so of these scam magazine offers. I don’t think I’ve fallen for anyone of them. Some of them were for magazines that I subscribed to and some of them were for magazines I would never subscribe to. I don’t know how they decide which magazines they send you a scam subscription offer for. I presume they buy information from someone. Just toss any subscription offer you get from a company not associated with the magazine.

I suspect Ralph has gotten a dozen or so of these scams as well, but only this one raised any red flags. The subscriptions to Welders Quarterly, Pole Dance Professional, and All Things Quilted slipped under his radar.

[digs]

@Miller

Thanks for the explanation, Dr. That umlaut was bothering more than is probably strictly healthy.

Hence the ëvil.

[Colibri]

@Dr.Strangelove

(i.e., he fat-fingered two keys at once).

Now I’m going to picture ralph typing wearing mittens (with a long knit scarf around his neck).

[Senegoid]

He’s right, I get those umlauts in the mail too, and then they want me to pay for them if I don’t send them right back. Happened all the time in the bad old days of snail-mail and Publishers Clearing Haus, and ëven today in the occasional ë-mail.

[pravnik]

@Chimera

Why those dirty capitalist communist bastards.

Good point. If they were communists they’d send you a bill for your neighbor’s subscription.

[Lacunae_Matata]

Wi nøt trei a høliday in Sweden this yër? See the løveli lakes The wøndërful telephøne system And mäni interesting furry animals.

[ZipperJJ]

The Pit? Finally!

ralph124c, You Suck!

[Gyrate]

So, basically, ralph124c is a target of the sort of scam that Mother Jones accuses “evil big business” of…and the people targetting him are in fact “evil big business”, thus proving Mother Jones right?

Maybe he should get a subscription.

[MsWhatsit]

This is pretty much the best thread ëver.

[JRDelirious]

And for spotting this unscrupulous use of the mailing list, Mother Jones rewarded ralph with a lifetime subscription. Or they would if there were justice in the Cosmos.

@Dr.Strangelove

The umlaut appeared because he meant to type an open-quote (which closed after “business”), using shift-quote, but instead managed to hit ctrl-shift-colon (i.e., he fat-fingered two keys at once). This puts some editors in a mode such that the next character (“e”, in this case) has an umlaut over it. The odd part is that the normal text editors in Chrome, Firefox, and IE don’t seem to have this feature.

Or he has his keyboard layout in Windows language settings selected for “US-International” where full quotemark immediately followed by (vowel) = umlaut, and if you do the same thing for the apostrophe you get the rising accent mark (for normal quote/apostrophe marks you have to hit the spacebar). This being ralph I can only speculate if getting his keyboard set that way that was intentional or accidental. However considering that it means he was able to hit properly shift+quotes and then the “e”, it raises the hope that he will now consistently hit the open parentheses “(” rather than “9”. Don’t fail us, ralph!

[Moonlitherial]

@Jackmannii

Have magazines stopped sending people extra issues past the expiration of their subscription and then demanding a renewal fee? I ran into that once or twice in the pre-digital Dark Ages.

No. Every month I receive Elle Magazine and every month I receive a “Renew now your subscription is about to expire” notice. I have never subscribed, but they keep sending it. I’ve even tried to cancel a few times when I felt guilty about immediately dumping it in the recycling bin each month but so far it still keeps coming and so do the bills.

@iamthewalrus_3

This Fall on an internet near you, Dr. Strangelove, Forensic Typographer.

“Help me, Doctor! I think my computer has a virus!”
“No, you must have just hit the caps lock key accidentally. Hardly a… capital offense”

::puts on sunglasses and strides away to I Can See For Miles::

This made me actually laugh out loud. “Luckily” I’m actually in the office today so I could share with others. La la la, of course I’m working but you should read this email it’s hilarious what people think they can get away with.

[mozchron]

They still have print magazines?

[SeldomSeen]

Reported for improper insertion of umlauts…

[Rhythmdvl]

[Quote=Frank]
. A dose of Mother Jones would be good for you.
[/QUOTE]

I suggest something more his speed, like Highlights.

[Green_Bean]

The Wall Street Journal is doing this too.

My boss receives the WSJ here at work, and yesterday he got a renewal notice. So I passed it along to the person who takes care of all publication subscriptions for the company. Today, I got the following email from her:

These publications can be so sneaky. The form says, “Notice of Renewal/New Order,” which is really misleading. It was actually an offer to start a new subscription. [Boss] is part of a corporate account we have set up, so he can disregard any such notices from the Wall Street Journal. The invoices for the corporate account come directly to me.

[Crotalus]

@Dr.Strangelove

he’s using some weird old browser

I always assumed ralph was still using Netscape.

[Boyo_Jim]

@Dr.Strangelove

…he’s using some weird old browser …

@Crotalus

I always assumed ralph was still using Netscape.

I was thinking a monocle.