the comments on pg 35 of your last issue

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Have any of you ever written a letter to a magazine or newspaper? What kind of people do? I'm not asking about the people who want a particular point made, but those who write in with a sarky comment about Julie Burchil, or "I realised after coming back from a night out that I really love hard house" or who sends household tips to Woman's Weekly or who is willing to make their girlfriend look stupid in front of the whole readership of FHM? WHO?

― Anna, Friday, 19 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

They are all made up.

― Tom, Friday, 19 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

To the editor,

Why oh why are there no new answers?

― Anna, Friday, 19 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

haha I used to write to Hot Press Magazine all the time and slate bands or reviews they'd given to things based on their Irishness and not their music. That was basically all I ever said. I also slated people who wrote in (every issue) moaning about "manufactured pop dross" or something silly. My finest hour was when they had "the revs make me want to smoke crack" in massive writing taken out of my letter at the top of the page. I also won a CD voucher with which I bought the Eminem Show.

I've had a few letters in the Irish Times but they were all those sarky oneliners. The Times is funny because you get all these tossers who think they're abrasive or smart writing letters like "Dear Sir, if the Taoiseach is cutting taxes, can we now make shit jokes about how all politicians are crooked!!!!!!! Yours Etc Joe Clown".

My letters were nothing like this of course, it's kind of respected to get a letter in the irish times i guess, it's a very good paper.

― Ronan, Friday, 19 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I wrote a letter to 2000AD once telling them that they'd got the name of a Dr Who assistant wrong in an article.

More recently I wrote to the London Review of Books telling them that another letter writer was incorrect in saying that Union Jack Jackson had appeared in Battle (when in fact he had appeared in Warlord).

I feel that I have done my bit to advance the sum of human knowledge.

― DV, Friday, 19 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

search: the letter pages of Joe Matt's Peepshow comic.

― jel --, Friday, 19 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Back one January long ago I wrote to Amiga Power complaining that they were simply copying features from Q magazine (back when I used to read it). Unfortunately they didn't print it until May so my wishing them a happy new year was met with a 'Blimey, is that the time'.

― mms, Friday, 19 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I had a letter in 'Love and Rockets' once but I didn't get a prize.

― Andrew L, Friday, 19 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I read the first issue of Adhoc (Cambridges now deceased listing magazine) and it had a letter in it saying how good the new magazine was. I don't see how they could have known how good the magazine was as when that issue was published there would have been no magazines to have read to see how good they are. I can see three possible explanations: 1) It was made up. 2) Micheal J Fox brought back a future copy of Adhoc in the unreleased back to the future four. 3) The person writing the letter had seen a draft copy and was so blown away by it they felt duty bound to write in.

― davel, Friday, 19 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Hey, Vicar - I read that letter (not YOURS!) in the LRB LAST NIGHT - strange coincidence - and thought it was one of the most foolish and superfluous and off-the-point letters I'd ever seen in the LRB. Did you?

― the pinefox, Friday, 19 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Dirty Vicar, your pedantry does you credit. It does matter.

― misterjones, Friday, 19 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I wrote to the NME and MM back in the day, and even got published a couple of times. But that was mainly the summer I was really ill and had to stay at home with nothing better to do than to stew over issues like "fakes" like Elastica getting better reviews than the riot grrl bands. It seems so sad now.

― Nicole, Friday, 19 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

!?!?! Man, I thought *I* was bad. I was published once in MM as well -- and that was something scrawled on the *back* of an envelope.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 19 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Snap! 1 for me in MM too (and by coincidence it got published on my birthday, which was nice). Flushed with this success, I had another go but they ignored that one. Marcello is the king of UK music press letters pages, tho' (or so he says).

― Jeff W, Friday, 19 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I had a letter published in Sounds over 25 years ago! I am very old, obviously.

― Martin Skidmore, Friday, 19 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I had a letter published in DV8 #2. All the Ellis-haters can suck it (where "it" is a pint; I'm not all that bothered if someone doesn't like the man's writing as much as I do).

― Dan Perry, Friday, 19 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Also published in Melody Maker, as well as the NME, and in the pedants section of FHM (I was 16 at the time, so reading FHM was acceptable)

― Dom Passantino, Friday, 19 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I had a letter in Alt. Press like 6 years ago or something. It was a total suck up over their Aphex Twin article.

― bnw, Friday, 19 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

A friend of mine had a household tip printed in Take A Break a while ago. The tip was if you have a shower but no shower rail for your shower curtain, you can hang a hula-hoop from a hook in the ceiling and use that. Um, apparantly this is much easier and better than just putting up a rail.

― jamesmichaelward, Friday, 19 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

davel, whwat on earth is a "listing magazine"?

― felicity, Friday, 19 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

when i was about 12 years old i wrote to RTR Countdown magazine telling them they didn't have enough rap in their magazine. i haven't done anything like that since.

― di, Friday, 19 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

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