Saddest E-Mail of the Day
Steven L. Taylor
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Tuesday, February 8, 2011
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8 comments
Just arrived in my inbox: Your Captain D’s Valentine’s Day Coupons!
Setting aside the question of how I got on Captain D’s* e-mail list, if one is going to a fast food place as one’s Valentine’s Day feast, I am guessing that one is single (or soon will be).
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*For those unfamiliar, Captain D’s is a fast food fish place like Long John Silver’s.
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a retired Professor of Political Science and former College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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I could imagine this appealing to, say, a high school student or someone on a similarly limited budget. But even then, I’d think there would be better choices, including preparing a meal at home.
Dude has to at least spring for White Castle.
@James:
Heck, when I was in high school and working at a fast food establishment I was able to afford a decent meal! 🙂
(Although for the life of me, I cannot remember where we went on our first Valentine’s Day date…).
Man, in high school I went all out for Valentine’s. I couldn’t imagine going to Captain D’s for VD. Now that a decade or so has passed, and my significant other has a good sense of humor, White Castle doesn’t sound like a bad Feb 14th.
This might be a good place for something that, I have to admit, shocked me last Easter. We were visiting my mother in law and returning on Easter Sunday. We stopped at an inexpensive diner along the way and I was startled to see the number of families, dressed in their Sunday best, out for what seemed to me to be a very rare and special occasion. I can’t explain how I ‘knew’ this was the case, but believe me I’ve spent a lot of time in diners in all kinds of places and I know the general feel. The poor and especially the working poor are nearly invisible. They don’t typically write in to blogs of any sort, and it is easy to forget they are there.
Screw VD Day! February 14th is the first day of Spring Training for the CUBS! Pitchers and Catchers report!
Well, let’s see, taking you sweetie to Captain D’s probably won’t get you laid unless you already share a marriage bed. However, if your unemployment has run out, you savings are gone and you’re trying to find enough money to cover the unexpectedly high heating bill, then Captain D’s might be all that can be justified…for those who are responsible and try to stay out of bankruptcy.
So make fun all you want, there are quite few, unseen and unheard, who can no longer afford to splurge on Captain D’s. I’ve seen a marked increase in the elderly picking up cans along the roadside, more roadside vendors here in the depth of winter and other efforts to bring in a couple of bucks. This recession we are supposedly recovering from is actually getting more painful because college savings, retirement savings and loans from relatives are running dry. Of course, folks with government jobs aren’t going to feel this and apparently have little awareness of it.
@JKB:
Yes, I am aware of this and this is what we call “a joke.”
Further, I am guessing the people you are describing aren’t getting Captain D’s e-mails in the first place, which was really the what struck me as humorous.