Tag Archives: responses

Day 171: Korrin

You may recall that I stumbled upon Lovely Handwritten Notes, another letter writing project here in DC, a few months ago…I even sent them a letter and they sent me one back.

I had an idea I wanted to share with Korrin, who started Lovely Handwritten Notes. I decided to send her one of my new cards I got courtesy of the good people at 1canoe2.

Day 171-2 Day 171

Korrin,

It was so nice to receive your note and learn that LHN is back up and running. Since we both live in DC and share a passion for handwritten notes, I was thinking thqt we should get together. I started doing some meet-ups where people come together to write their letters – usually an hour or two at a coffee shop on a Saturday morning. I was thinking that we might try to plan one together and unite the DC letter writing community.

What do you think?
-Reed

Sunday Notes & Letters for Week 24

A card from my friend Christy

A card from my friend Christy

It’s hard to believe that I am almost half way through my Year of Letters! It’s been an awesome journey (I sound like I’m on The Bachelor) so far and I am really looking forward to discover where this project takes me for the remainder of the year.

The responses to my letters have picked up, making it even more interesting. This week I received a half-dozen or so handwritten letters. I heard from Christy, a friend and former colleague, in New York who I haven’t connected with in a really long time. I also got a thank you note from my friend Heather who has beautiful handwriting – she’s climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro this year, perhaps I will get a letter from along the trail!

responses

Heather has beautiful handwriting.

You saw this past week that I received a letter from Anthony Kaczynski, the person who found my anonymous letter that I left up in Boston. I also heard from Korrin of Lovely Handwritten Notes – a project that I wrote to on Day 49. She and some friends are reviving it after a hiatus. Keep a look out for a letter to Korrin in the coming days.

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Korrin’s note to me – she also has nice penmanship.

 

Sunday Notes and Letters for Week 19

Today I want to share a letter I received this week. You may remember that three weeks ago on Day 100 I wrote to Dr. Ellsworth Wareham, the 100-year-old cardiologist that was interviewed recently by Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

He wrote me back! How cool is that. You should watch the link above with Dr. Sanjay Gupta – you’ll be inspired by Dr. Wareham.

Dr Wareham letter

Dear Read-

What an achievement – to write a letter a day!

Concerning prevention of coronary artery disease, I refer you to 2 books: Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease by Caldwell Esselstyn and The China Study by Colin Campbell. In summary – you must not eat animal products. 

I think the material in these books is scientific and highly reliable.

Remember all tastes are acquired except for breast milk. Your taste buds can be changed in 3 months, so you can learn to like what is healthy. Just start eating healthfully.

All the best,
Ellsworth W.

Sunday Notes & Letters for Week 14

Photo: sineadgleeson.com

Photo: sineadgleeson.com

I got a few letters back this week. The first one was a response to my letter on Day 65 to House of Cards creator Beau Willimon. I use the word response pretty liberally. I actually heard from Netflix. It was a form letter thanking me for being such a huge fan of Netflix – which isn’t exactly true, I’m fairly indifferent to Netflix. My letter was to Mr. Willimon and had no reference to me being a fan of their service. I’m sure Mr. Willimon will be writing back shortly – after all I did tweet at him.

Another letter was from my Aunt Kay who I wrote to on Day 52. She thanked me for my letter to her and let me know that she would probably be back in DC in the next couple of weeks. That’s great – I always enjoy spending time with her.

Finally I got a letter from my friend Aimee from Day 5 thanking me for my handwritten letter and absurdly late wedding gift. You may recall that I couldn’t remember whether or not I had sent them a gift or not for their 2013 wedding! Yep, I was really late…more than Emily Post’s “you’ve got a year” advice.

So all in all it was a good week. Well, with the exception of an irritating email from Google Adsense that informed me that they were terminating my agreement with them due to a violation of their terms and guidelines and that I was banned for life. Furthermore, they reneged on their promise to pay me for allowing companies to advertise on my blog. It’s not a ton of money – trust me I’m not quitting my day job – but it would have helped offset the cost of postage, stationery, etc. They won’t even tell me how I violated their terms and guidelines – that’s the most annoying part. In response to my appeal, they just offered some snooze-inducing stock language that says they’d love to tell me why they’ve taken this action against me BUT….they can’t:

We understand that you may want more information about your account activity, however, in order to protect our proprietary detection systems, we are unable to provide further details. Thank you for understanding.

Well, thanks for nothing Google. And shame on you. I expected more from a company who touts the phrase “Don’t Be Evil” as their motto and states their mission as, “facilitating access to information for the entire world” – well, unless of course that information is about Google themselves.  I will be looking for other advertising ideas to help offset the costs of the website. If you have any suggestions of reputable, honest (i.e. won’t keep my money!) marketing partners – drop me a note.

Week 8 Notes and Letters

A great week for the Year of Letters. I received three responses in the mail – well sorta.

First, I received a letter from Caroline Fraser Zinsser. Her husband, William Zinsser, was the recipient of my 22nd letter. Now 92, the authority on writing well for the past half century, is now blind she explained to me and unable to reply, but she offered his phone number and let me know that I could call him. Wow! I haven’t called yet, I am not sure what I would tell him other than I think he’s a genius but he doesn’t need me wasting his time to tell him that.

Week 8Second, I received a letter from Margaret at the Hotel Monaco regarding my letter to General Manager Mart Hurlburt on January 6th requesting that my gift certificate for a one-night stay in their Alexandria, VA hotel be extended – I let it expire. She kindly offered to grant me the extension – thank you Margaret and thank you to Hotel Monaco!!! I’m a big fan of their hotels, but I have yet to stay in their Alexandria property so I am looking forward to that.

The last response I received wasn’t really a response I guess. You may remember that on Day 35 I wrote a letter to Jayson Werth of the Washington Nationals. He was serving a short sentence in the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center for a reckless driving incident last year. I figured he would have some free time to read my letter – but I don’t believe he ever saw it. My letter had been opened, inspected, taped shut and returned to me.

Finally, I want to congratulate Katy from Day 22. She was the co-producer of Citizenfour – the Edward Snowden documentary that took home the Oscar tonight for Best Documentary. She’s amazing.

Get ready for another week of handwritten letters. Do you have someone you think I should write? Let me know. And how about you, when is the last time you penned a handwritten letter to someone. Try to write at least one this week – you’ll be glad you did!