While reading The Economist a few weeks ago, I ran across an article bashing the Mexican postal system, which both in words and in the accompanying cartoon, lampooned the mail system for using bicycles.
Having travelled in Europe and other places, I knew that many of the world’s leading countries — Germany, Norway, Sweden, The Netherlands, etc. — use bicycles as a way to deliver mail, and hence a letter to the editor was born. Imagine my thrill when only my second attempt at a letter to the editor in The Economist (the other was during college) yielded results! Note: they edited it. (photo courtesy Dave Snyder).
My grandfather always got The Economist, and started getting me a subscription when I was old enough to appreciate it. I still get it today, many years after his death. I’ve always loved it, though my friends think I’m snooty.
Nevertheless, a letter in the nation’s fifth-highest magazine in overall advertising pages in the U.S. (behind Forbes, Business Week, People, and Bride’s) feels good. Even if they have to put in the obligatory “SIR-” at the start of the letter. The BTA — a voice for cyclists around the world!
In an amazing feat of ego, I was able to find a more sarcastic letter I had published in The New York Times nine years ago. Who said the web wasn’t good for anything? (wink)
E.,
Yes, quite impressive to get a letter published in the Economist magazine…global exposure for BTA!!
I used to read the Economist regularly during my Peace Corps days…a fellow volunteer was a subscriber. It is a serious and thoughtful magazine.
Congratulations again on your publishing success.
JB
I got a kick out of your letter to the editor for several reasons. Firstly, I love to see a Portlander mentioned in a magazine with that kind of international readership. As a double whammy, the issue also featured an article on the sadly low state of Salmon populations in the Klamath River — Oregon is really on the world stage. Finally, I lived in London, England for 4 years and never even saw a motorized vehicle that delivered the mail. It was all done by energic young people on standard Royal Mail issue red bicycles. And in light of the beloved UK weather, they all should be knighted.
Richard Stanley
Deputy Director
Oregon Trout
…and avid bicycle commuter
Hey Evan,
Congrats. My friends think I’m a capitalist for reading the Economist, but still I read it. Capitalists need something closer to the truth before they invest their money, so it’s a good source for info. I’m glad you defended cycling mail carriers. I’ll send you a pic of a dutch bicycle-bound mail carrier in a separate email.
I also liked your NYT letter. In the early 90s, I participated in something called the CA Bike Safety Network, a well-intended effort by car-dependent public health advocates to promote bicycle safety that consisted almost entirely of encouraging helmet use, including through legal mandates. We were asked to indicate our priorities for traffic safety, and I said the same thing: air bags on the outside. It got published in the formal catalog of participants so I had to ask it be removed and replaced with something more serious for the second edition. But still I thought it was one of the better ideas for traffic safety in that first edition!!
Evan,
Now you have to get a letter in Bride’s.
Michelle