I'd be willing to bet he could pick and choose from the volunteers he got as a response to this ad. Probably had to have a standby list.

I'm certain you can find ads circulating right now that are soliciting volunteers for a (one-way) trip to Mars.

The overwhelming percentage of responders will be male.

Boom.

Ok, he probably meant it in the sense of "I've read the article," not "You should read the article"

I write about that in my book.

But the ad is probably apocryphal. If it had really been published in a London broadsheet (the Times), it would have been spelled "honour."

The prevailing theory is that it was actually part of an ad campaign from the thirties.

During the Civil War a volunteer cavalry unit in San Francisco needed 100 recruits to travel east to the fighting. The turnout was so enthusiastic, 500 were signed up! Half of them did not return.

Forgot to add-- the were recruited through an ad in the newspaper!

Crid, your link gave me my only laugh in an otherwise dismal day.

Gail-- I'm a good bit embarrassed. It's highly likely that the guy meant to say (colloquially, in the George Herbert Walker Bush style of avoidance for the first-person singular) that he HAD read the entire article... Not that she SHOULD. He was trying to flatter her, and she was in a hurry to presume he was being an oblivious and condescending asshole. I instantly and reflexively shared her presumption.

This is a very bad week in which —and a very bad topic about which— to be making that mistake.

Also, have a better week.

Just the item for today's Shackleton on the go!

Will there be a formal notification of the end of men or are we too late?

The Shackleton help-wanted ad may be apocryphal, but as far as I know the Pony Express "Orphans preferred" ad was quite real. They were going to staff the riskiest jobs with boys to reduce the load on the horses, and would prefer not to have to answer to the boys' parents - but that phrase was also well-calculated to draw the sort of dare-devils they needed.