People on planes

If you fly at all, chances are that at some point in your travels you've met someone on a flight.

Sometimes it's an interesting person. Sometimes it's an incredibly annoying person

I've meet a lot of people on planes.

Here's a little story about an interesting man I met recently.

His name was Andy and I met him on a flight from Los Angeles to St. Louis.

He told me that he lived in Oakland, California that he was on his way to meet his wife who was at a conference.

He didn't divulge what kind of conference it was, but he told me that he planned to stay for a week.

In fact, he and his wife had made a goal to visit all 50 states and stay for a week in each state.

Here's the kicker -- they're doing it in alphabetical order!

Missouri is, alphabetically, the 25th state, so they were hitting the halfway point.

Andy told me that it had taken them nearly ten years to get to that point. He also said that they were always planning two trips at the same time to keep the ball rolling.

How cool is that?!

I asked if he was writing a blog or a book and he said no to the blog and that he had made lots of notes for a book but was not writing one as yet.

Before the flight was over, Andy had asked me to tell him about some places to visit in St. Louis since I was a native. He was also interested in places to eat as recommended by someone and not a guidebook. He didn't want to dine in any franchise restaurants.

I did my best to tell him about things he could do and eat that were unique to the area.

It was fun to tell Andy about the best parts of the city. It was like I was letting someone in on the secrets of the area.

So, in the end, Andy turned out to be one of those interesting people that I really wanted to talk to.

Now if I could just meet one of these people on every flight......

The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition investigation

There was a time that I was a Sports Illustrated subscriber. I truly like the magazine. It's filled with great articles that take fans inside sports.

Everyone knows that the biggest issue of the year is the SI Swimsuit edition. Featuring scantily clad models in exotic locales, this issue is fawned over by readers and the media.

Interestingly, I recently came across something in the magazine in the 'letters' section.

At the bottom of the page, there was a small box that said like this:
   
       If You Do Not Want the Swimsuit Issue
   The annual SI Swimsuit Issue will be published in February. If you're a subscriber and would prefer not to receive it, call out customer service center toll free at 1-800-528-5000 am let us know. If you choose not to receive the SI Swimsuit issue, SI will extend your subscription.

This paragraph peaked my interest so I call the 1-800 number.

A polite customer service rep named Lisa answered my call.

I asked her straight out if a lot of people called asking to opt out of the swimsuit issue. She said, yes, that a lot people do call to skip that issue.

When I pressed her for numbers, like a percentage of subscribers, I stubbed her.

She put me on hold for a few minutes, I held out little hope that she would come back with an answer. And, I was correct. She had no further information. She gave me an e-mail address to send my inquiry to. 

I sent my question today. 

I'm curious to see if I get any response. 

If I don't hear via e-mail, I may try to find someone else to call, but we'll see. 

So the SI Swimsuit investigation is on. 

Will let you know what, if anything, happens.