"I Was Interested In Your Site Until..."
A reader (or, I should say, a now-former reader) emails:
Seriously,why not try tackling some issues like people starving in oh I don't know 5 out of 7 continents on the planet. Why not try to help solve world peace? Why waste your time with someone who hit your car, or a telemarketer that called you. You have a very good way of writing I only wished that I was blessed with such a gift. However, to dress up your dog and complain about someone who sent you a e-mail that you could just delete and get on with your life, maybe write something with meaning instead of grabbing someone's attention for 5 seconds like you are currently doing.
I'm sorry I wasted my time on your site, I wish you would write about something important!
I wish people like yourself would stop wasting their lives and do something more important! I understand paying a $500 excess is bad for you i really do my fiancee's car was recently written off while she was in a carpark shopping. However to spend that amount of time and energy on that where it could be put to better use elsewhere?
i still fail to understand people like yourself who are so selfish!
My response:
Shouldn't you be out giving out food to the poor instead of writing to tell me what a shallow person I am? Perhaps my site is my hobby. I also, horrid girl that I am, sometimes read crime novels and watch silly old movies on TV. Bad Amy! Bad Amy!PS When I'm not obsessed with the trivial, I do sometimes do stuff like speak about separation of church and state to high school students, and then there are the hundreds of requests for advice I answer every week, free of charge...but don't let that get around!
And then, I added:
I'm so embarrassed to have lapsed from my mission to be trivial, but there you have it:Advice Goddess Blog search/Sudan
FYI, the small stuff is what Rudy Giuliani called "quality of life" issues, and it matters, too. Well, not to saints such as yourself, but to the rest of us mortals. Well, off to cure bird flu!
I was going to write a response, but I think I'll tackle the problem of the American health care system instead.
We should all have coverage by 5pm tonight Eastern.
Deirdre B. at January 3, 2006 4:58 AM
this person has a point and i guess the right question would be why don't these people with these starving questions write and ask for your (free) advice?
have you ever recieved a request from the UN for advice because they sure could use some. why don't they write? it's free !?!
and what about congress and the white house, boy are those places that could use some good advice.
do they ever ask?
-mike- at January 3, 2006 6:50 AM
Oh, Amy, you're wonderful. Sorry to comment so head-on, but am just sitting here laughing and smiling. And the second photo of Lucy... keep doing exactly what you're doing, all of it.
nancy at January 3, 2006 7:30 AM
The time and money you spend on your dog could be put to better use figuring out a way to relieve Third World Debt. That's what I do with all my free time and money--look at the success I'm having.
KateCoe at January 3, 2006 9:05 AM
How does dressing up your dog equal heartless neglect of starving people? No offense intended, but I can see how someone would be upset if this was, say, cnn.com or something, but it's a blog -albeit a very good blog, but still - every person has the right to pursue happiness and if that means dressing up your silky terrier and putting her cute little picture on your own personal blog, then that's a hell of a lot better time spent than hatefully emailing relationship advice columnists with baseless accusations.
Abby at January 3, 2006 10:19 AM
I love these people. Being pissed at you for "wasting your time" writing about your own life when they're wasting their time being in a snit about somebody else's waste of time. So thank you, nameless busybody, for allowing me to waste my time laughing at you.
Christina at January 3, 2006 12:32 PM
These are always the same people who yell at me for helping out dogs. They always want to know what I'm doing to help the homeless, the elderly, the children, who "clearly deserve it" more than the animals.
I just smile sweetly and tell them that I'm taking care of the dog problem so they'll have the time to take care of the human one.
At first glance, I must admit that I thought they were no longer reading due ot the fact that dressing Lucy up like that is a clear case of animal abuse. ;)
the slackmistress at January 3, 2006 5:24 PM
That's what everybody thinks until they see me open the drawer where her clothes are. She practically turns cartwheels. The sick thing is, I think she knows she's pretty.
Amy Alkon at January 3, 2006 6:10 PM
Umm.. your dog has a clothes drawer? ;)
Christina at January 3, 2006 8:46 PM
Sorry...forgot to remember how twisted that is!
Amy Alkon at January 3, 2006 8:49 PM
Indifferent to the hungry? That's outrageous! You might have mentioned to the correspondent that your fey wee cur-lette has given the gift of sustenance to millions upon millions of starving fleas.
Mao See Tung at January 3, 2006 11:59 PM
Or Amy could run for Miss America and solve all the worlds problems.
So get in the gym amy ... those bikini shots are vicious if your not in tip top shape.
Jack at January 4, 2006 3:42 AM
Lucy, Senor Mao, has no fleas, only the millons of human hangers-on.
Amy Alkon at January 4, 2006 6:31 AM
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