29 April 2009

Read, Listen, Care

My dog is not dead.

But I suppose I have only myself to blame for the email I got yesterday from someone who wanted to buy ad space on my blog:

Hey, my name is Lisa with XXXXXX. I recently came across your blog. I really appreciated your post after your dog died. We had to put my cat down yesterday, and it was sad to see him go after 18 years. Thanks for your posts! On another note…I thought you might be willing to help us. We’re trying to improve our search rankings with...

Clearly, Lisa didn’t get past my admittedly misleading post title Mourning Dogs – she leapt to the conclusion that I was mourning a dog, when in fact I was mourning my mother. I've never even owned a dog!

Once upon a time, I worked at a big theater. The subscription manager there – who had to deal with the public all the time – had a frequently iterated saying: "They don’t read, they don’t listen and they don’t care."

At least weekly, I think of her, and that line of hers. Because it's true. They don't read, they don't listen and they don't care.

25 comments:

Claudia said...

Yeah. They sure don't. And I'm sure you're willing to help someone who didn't. Sigh. People.

needleinahaystack said...

"They" don't but we do.

niobe said...

I think I've found my new motto.

Janet said...

some do...some do.

The Library Lady said...

That describes a lot of the parents who come to my story hours in a nutshell :(

Damn spammers.....

Anonymous said...

How crass. Not to mention phony. I feel a bit dirty.

I hope I'm right in thinking that I rarely am so bent on pushing my own agenda that I am oblivious and insensitive to others. Certainly when I realize I have been, I suffer (an excessive amount of) guilt and embarrassment.

Aliki2006 said...

It's sad. I have gotten so many of those (probably because of FE) and it always seems clear that they never bothered to read past the first line.

Kyla said...

Lisa emailed me to, though, with fewer faux pas.

Aunt Becky said...

I laugh, but kind of bitterly.

After Amelia was born with her brain problems and I was writing post after post about the agony I was in, I'd get these emails asking me to promote this, that or the other on my blog (Hi Becky, can you tell your readers about this money saving site?) (Hi Asshole, Eff-You).

The worst tho? The READERS who would nit-pick and send me messages about "How dare I poke fun at their (something I'd make gentle fun of)."

Like, thanks, jerks, I really needed to defend myself against you at this particular moment in time.

Man, I guess I was kinda heated about that.

And, sorry about your dog, Magpie ;)

Woman in a Window said...

but some do~

Woman in a Window said...

Oh, and sorry 'bout yer dog. I missed that post.

alejna said...

Oof.

The same person contacted, me, too, but didn't make a pretense of having read my blog. Which is maybe somewhat better.

(Also, I'm sure that if you had ever owned a dog, she would have appreciated punctuation and grammar.)

Mayberry said...

Wow, Lisa's been busy. She wrote to me too. Now I'm mad she didn't even try to act like she read my blog!

painted maypole said...

not to say i've never missed something, but when I read i try to listen and care

but yes, the majority of people do not.

flutter said...

wait, your dog died?! I am so sorry!!

flutter said...

kidding, which is poor taste, I know. But I love you, I read you and I care.

Ozma said...

Dang, that's pretty bad--They don't listen but not on purpose. And not everyone.

Reading is hard for some people. And I don't mean that in a sarcastic or snobbish way. Some people read badly.

There's just something about this that just really sucks. Being misread can be torture.

Janet said...

Lisa's evil twin Amythest (*cough* fake name *cough*) emailed me the other day saying how much she loved my blog and would like to put some ads up.

Oh, you mean my blog that I recently shut down? My blog with only a few posts on it?

Solid advertising strategy there, Amythest.

heidi said...

I read, I listen & I care... but people who look at the pics & don't read the text are keeping me in biz ;-)

meno said...

I got one of those e-mails after i wrote about my cat dying.

Vultures!

shrink on the couch said...

I was waiting for an appropriate time to say, and now might not be that time, but ... a friend of mine recently adopted a puppy and named her Mokie. http://teeteringbetween.blogspot.com/2009/04/more-about-dog.html

Gwen said...

Perhaps it's Lisa's search engine that doesn't read or care.

As for me, I didn't even know you had a dog ....

KC said...

Ha- got something similar about my new pregnancy. I was like -ew- that was about...nevermind.

nonlineargirl said...

Wow. Exhibit #1 on how not to get someone to want to help you.

Stimey said...

Oh no! That deserves a nasty email if anything does. Oy.