The Special “October Eighth” Edition

Dear APP:

As a frequent contributor to the previous mailbag, I'd just like to start off by saying that I'm really glad to see the grand, wonderful, triumphant, and, somehow, oddly aromatic return of the Mailbag.

Now, here's the question for you:  Since you're not long affiliated with AOL, Playboy, or Heckler's, does that mean I can say fuck?

Yours,

RedShoes60@aol.com

Dear Red:

Sure, I'm SURE that you CAN say Fuck, but the question is - MAY you, and the answer is NO.  Only the editors of APP may say Fuck, and be assured, we¹ll only use Fuck if it is essential to the integrity of the story or if we speak of injustices so heinous that only Fuck can express it.

We welcome your letters, Red, but ask yourself, is Fuck the best you can do?  I think it shows a little lack of effort and creativity. Think about it, and write again.

Mine,

jessi

Dear App:

How about some graphics?

Brianm

Dearest Brian M,

 

We here at the Absurd Pamphlet Press wanted to do a website that didn’t feel the need to have tons of long-downloading graphics or pop-up ads or web counters or pages that opened by themselves after you closed ours. In short, we wanted a web page that we wouldn't have to pay a geek to create for us. But - I'll tell you what. What if we just started adding some really graphic descriptions of things? One per mailbag?

 

The graphic description for today is: The Egg That Hit My Wife's Car

 

A bit of the off-white shell was still stuck to the windshield, in a spot where no amount of windshield wiper activity would ever get it. The rest of the crème-colored thin shards sat lazily about the hood of the Saturn, glued there until the next heavy rain. The yolk radiated outward from the point of contact in diminishing lines of deep orange tending almost towards red, like an explosion of ooze.


Dear APP:

Did you ever get that dog joke you were looking for?

Tierliebe@aol.com

Dear Tier:

Nope - and the contest still goes on.  If you send me the dog joke I¹ve been searching for for lo these past five years, I will write a love poem in your honor and post it on the front page.

Good luck!

Jessi

Dear APP:

Hi Chris, I thought I'd ask you a question here, in the mailbag, and that question is...does everyone bitch this much in every other mailbag?  I mean, they're complaining about the colors, the content, the formatting, the email address...you don't answer my letters...yap yap yap.  Is this how mailbags always are?  Or do some people just say, hey, thanks for all the hard work that it took to just put the DAMN THING UP?  Do they?  I don't know.

Jessi

Dear Jessi,

 

I don’t know about every OTHER mailbag, but I seem to remember a lot of it in the last one I did. Wait a minute, let me read over some of those archives.

 

(Hours pass)

 

Good GOD. Did they bitch, or what? I'd forgotten just how much bitching there was! Maybe THAT'S why Hecklers cancelled it!

 

What do you think, should we start trying to move "Dear APP" towards a contructive dialogue? I'm warning you - we'll cut our audience in HALF if we do. And that will leave about 1.5 people to read it.

 

Don’t worry, you'll get used to it.


Dear APP:

Fiction Section
Fictionabooboo
Fiscal Fiction
Fiction Friction

Feature Section
The Frequent Feature Whirlwind Of Power

    well I hope this has been very helpful in picking out a new section name,
cya

Coat10@aol.com

Dear Coat:

You’re killing us here - KILLING US.  And not in a funny, stand up comedy sort of way, either.  Yes, this does help us pick a section name, in that, we’re slowly realizing that Fictionarium is pretty damn good.

Exasperatedly yours,

jessi

Dear Absurd Pamphlet Press:

I take the gravest offense to your poem "Anime Shanime".  You may not be aware of this but many people due to a rare genetic abnormality, do in fact, have enormous eyes, sometimes 10-12 times the size of an average human eye, small dots for noses, and a wide variety of mouth shapes. Because of our unique and striking looks we are under heavy scrutiny from just about every one.  This causes many  of us to suffer from nervous disorders the side-affects of which are often uncontrollable shaking, and a sense of deep anxiety which distorts time and speed.

It is because of Anime's accurate depiction of our condition, that we as a people have found acceptance, and so to speak our "niche" in a society utterly consumed with surface appearances.

I would ask you to reconsider your evaluation of Japanimation when you say it makes you "weep with fear".  We are people just like anyone else, and would like to be treated as such.  The only difference is, we have very big eyes which can see through to your shallowness and insensitivity.

Sincerely,

Trixie W. Lawrence

 

Trixie,

 

We stand before you, humbly corrected, and very apologetic. The editors at APP are just coming to realize that our audience is made up mostly of people with vast, grotesque physical and mental deformities like your own. We will make every effort to act with more sensitivity in the future.

 

Yours in contrition,

 

APP

 

Dear APP:

I find it disturbing that you are advising a 16 year old boy to pursue a romantic relationship with a "20 something" woman.  Either you are encouraging a romantic interest that could not possibly be reciprocated or are setting up an exploitive, emotionally destructive relationship.  Rejection at any age is difficult, but at 16 when one's self esteem and worth is so closely linked to the perceptions of others, a non-reciprocated relationship is far more painful:  especially when the focus of that unrequited infatuation is not a peer, but an adult that is idealized.  Further any "20 something" who would actively involve herself in a romantic relationship with a pubescent minor is emotionally, mentally, and physically abusing an unsophisticated youth. In fact, your response supports an illegal activity.

Citizens for Responsible Comedy

Dear CfRC:

You see Red, this is a perfect example of when I COULD use the word FUCK, but I'm choosing not to.  First of all, I never advised this 16 year old to have SEX with the 20 something mail carrier, I simply said he should "go for it".  "Going for it" could mean he would write her a nice note, send her flowers, sing her a song like For The Girl Who Has Everything by N Sync - and so on - none of these activities are illegal.  Rejection at any age is difficult, but I would venture to say (and slay me if you must) that a sixteen year old, hormonally charged boy isn't really looking for his LIFE PARTNER in the form of a twenty something mail carrier, so much as he is looking to manifest his daily masturbation fantasies.  I perceive this from his original letter which could describe her no further except to say that she had large breasts.  So I'm pretty sure the rejection wouldn't be TOO extreme.  Furthermore, I, currently, am in love with several teenage boys, but I'm also in love with a couple of forty year olds, while at the same time being married to a twenty something, so it all comes out in the mental stability wash basin, if you know what I mean.  Besides, your idea that I would physically abuse an unsophisticated youth is preposterous, seeing as I am, by nature, a submissive.

Always a pleasure,

Jessi


Dear APP:

May I suggest that the mailbag have a different backround according to the main Idea of each mailbag (or just whatever you want) for each new mailbag,  That would kick ass.

Coat10@aol.com

Dear Coat,

And may I point out that we already do this - it just so happens that the main Idea of each edition of the Dear APP has been the utter blackness of despair and hopelessness. Hence the black background.

 

Good to see we're thinking alike, though!

 

And congratulations on your second letter today.

 

it makes me feel all hot and bothered when i think of the fact that even though you are the same person it seems as if you have changed and became somewhat not funny. please help.

InOcEnSe69@aol.com

Dear Innocence,

 

I do not deny the fact that I have changed... but as to your "not funny" charge, I simply cannot go along with that. Perhaps it is YOU, Innocence, YOU, that have lost your sense of humor! Did you think of that? J'ACCUSE, Innocence!

 

 

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