Unlikely Sales Prospect

I've been too busy with the film festival to blog much about politics this week, although I have a really great Tavis Smiley on my TiVo, talking about the conviction from a 40yo civil rights case, plus all sorts of other goodies waiting for me. I also caught last night's Daily Show with Bill Moyers as guest, and I've caught enough snippets of the story about the Corporation for Public Broadcasting chair's spying on the show that I'm certain I'll follow up soon, but today's entry is a little closer to home.

I got something in my mail yesterday, an advertisement with a Personal Satisfaction Guarantee that "this new product promises to make you sexually active and alive." Well, that'll be just a bit of a trick, since the solicitation is addressed "Good news for you, Eugene Dickerson." Gene lived in this apartment before I did. The thing is, Gene died in 1994. You will therefore permit me a small measure of skepticism that this herbal male supplement will make Gene "sexually active and alive."

Gene still gets a surprising amount of mail, 10 years after his death. I'm sure he'd be gratified to know that a company that was founded several years after he passed away, wants to hire him to help them in a fast-growing industry. I have no idea if Gene would be qualified for the job — I mean, I know there are minimum-wage jobs where the only requirement is to have a pulse, but even there Gene comes up a bit short. Maybe he could be an employee benefits coördinator at Wal-Mart.

In the mean time, if you want an herbal product guaranteed to raise the dead, just watch your mailbox.