Usually that line is a come-on for "donations" via Paypal. Well, we know you're broke, and we'd just spend the money on sniffing glue anyway, so forget money. Send us feedback. Like this story? Hate it? Think we're the lamest site since microsoft.com?
No, we won't do anything with your return address execpt, maybe, send you a thank-you note.
By Jonathan Krim
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 5, 2004; 7:48 PM
E-mail communication to and from The Washington Post was disrupted Thursday after its washpost.com Internet address was shut down because the company failed to renew its $35 annual registration.
Frustrated employees, who also lost some other internal Internet-based functions, were told that renewal notices from Herndon, Va.-based Network Solutions, which registers domain names, went to a "drop box" that was not monitored.
The problem was discovered early Thursday morning when the paper's Baghdad bureau chief, Rajiv Chandrasekaran, was unable to get onto the Post's internal messaging system. E-mail sent to the Post bounced back to the senders, with a notification that the domain no longer existed.
Champ Mitchell, chief executive of Network Solutions, said that in the past six months the Post was sent "no less than seven" notifications that the registration was about to expire, most of them by e-mail [and that] the Post would have been sent at least two notices via physical mail, when the e-mail notices did not get a response.
Now that the Post has decide to come clean about this fiasco, and because of our close association with the Post in eyes of many in the journalism world - we have often been described as "The Washington Post of Southeast Muskelunge County, on those days when the Herald-Register doesn't publish" - that we feel obliged to clarify a few things that have happened lately.
First off, it is true that we have experienced a few power outages over the last six months due to unpaid bills. The paper is in no way insolvent, but we made the mistake of entrusting the utility payment function to our intern, Elroy Elohim, of Muskelunge Tech. Like most interns, Elroy is a fine young person, but as a journalism major he is completely incapable of handling any real-world responsibility. But not to fear. We have moved Elroy to the copy desk, and hired Eloise from the Java Joint to pay our bills and do the books between her lunch and evening waitress shifts. Eloise is a single mom, and always one paycheck away from homelessness. The crippling nightmares of late fees and penury may be eroding her sanity and breaking her spirit, but for now, Eloise has been a real Godsend. Keep up the good work!
Second, a moment's reflection will make clear how improbable it is that "the state revoked our newspaper license." Newspapers aren't licensed in this country. Technically, the only documents we have had revoked were our journalism degrees, and technically we don't even need those in order to publish! Kudos to Miriam Matebele, our part-time cleaning lady for pointing that out to us, and for that hilarious story about her cousin in Zimbabwe who had his thumbs broken for criticizing the President.
Also, rumors that we had been evicted from our offices for non-payment of rent are ridiculous to those who are familiar with our business model. Uncle Zebulon would never evict us, not while Aunt Zephyr is one postcard away from finding out about the Tryst in Tulsa.
Finally, even we know that the language is free as the air; the constant threats to "repossess our consonants" have turned out to be nothing but a series of pranks from the local wits. For the record, we weren't scared, and our classified ads in the Herald-Register seeking "used consonants" were our way of playing along.
Remember, Kids, the part in bold is actual 100% news-flavored media product.
The rest is the fakey part.
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