| Here's my cold email story. In the Netflix series The Good Place, there is an AI character named Janet, who helps assist people who have gone to that place where you go after you die. One quirk when you're in the Good Place: you can't use swear words. If you try to say "fuck" it comes out "fork". Janet is portrayed brilliantly by D'Arcy Carden. Her dad is Dennis Erokan, who published MicroTimes and BAM (Bay Area Music) Magazine and produced the Bammies award festival. MicroTimes was one of those big thick magazines like Computer Shopper, full of interesting ads and a few articles. After I discovered this, I found Dennis' email and wrote to him: --- Hi Dennis! Yes, I know it's usually D'Arcy who gets the autograph requests. My friend Ro and I recently finished watching The Good Place. What a wonderful series! I always enjoy learning about the people who worked to create a great show like this. After a bit of research I was like "What the fork? Janet's real life dad is the MicroTimes guy!" So I checked my archival drawer and found one of my old MicroTimes from 1996. Ro lived in New York in the late 1980s, and she flew to SF a few of those years just to go to the Bammies. Her secret hope was to somehow get acquainted with Steve Perry. But she did see Ted Nugent staring at her in a bookstore. So that was at least a consolation prize. Ro's birthday is coming up later this month. I stealthily searched eBay and got the 1986 and 1988 BAM Magazines with the Bammies Scrapbooks. I wonder if you could autograph these? I would be more than happy to take you out for lunch or dinner at any of your favorite places up in your neck of the woods. Or I could just bring them to your office or any location you want if that's more convenient for you. And if we can work out a time when Ro could join us (probably easier on a weekend), she would be delighted to meet you! --- Dennis was quite tickled by this. We took him to lunch at his favorite restaurant, he signed our MicroTimes and BAM magazines, and we all had a great time sharing stories about some of the people we knew. |