From a post here at smays.com in March, 2008:
“On Friday morning, 10 emails are selected at random and forwarded to President Obama’s in-box. He looks through them, picks one and responds –personally– to the sender.”
And the following from the New York Times in April, 2009:
“Tens of thousands of letters, e-mail messages and faxes arrive at the White House every day. A few hundred are culled and end up each weekday afternoon on a round wooden table in the office of Mike Kelleher, the director of the White House Office of Correspondence. He chooses 10 letters, which are slipped into a purple folder and put in the daily briefing book that is delivered to President Obama at the White House residence. Designed to offer a sampling of what Americans are thinking, the letters are read by the president, and he sometimes answers them by hand, in black ink on azure paper.”
If you can find an earlier reference to “my” idea, leave it in the comments. I’m just looking for my props.
Alas, the IP address of the commenter above traces back to St. Louis. But let’s pretend the president had the NSA boys reroute his connection for security reasons.
Hi there Steve. When we met on the campaign trail I remembered your URL for some reason . . . smays.com, so easy.
Well, our conversation was too brief back then, but I’ve been a big fan of your blog through today. Ever notice any hits coming from all over everywhere, then Chicago and now DC?
Just want to let you know that the “10 letters” idea was in fact yours. I’d like to now give you proper credit where credit is due and thank you for putting such a strong idea out on the table.
You managed to tap into my need for information, my desire to stay connected and of course, the ability to utilize technology – a trifecta!
So, thanks Steve . . . and here’s to you!
I’ve got one of those, too. It’s been about three years ago that I came up with the idea that you could make the highway play music as you drive over the slots they cut in the pavement to warn you that you are nearing the shoulder. By varying the spacing of the slots and their width, you can create different tones, or notes as your car drives over them. (Most of the notes you hear when nearing ths shoulder is a D or a G note.)
So imagine my wife’s chagrin when Honda (I think) ran a commercial last week where they highlighted the “musical mile”. They sliced up the pavement as described aboe to get their jingle to play as they drove over it.
Been there done that.
(Still broke)
How about, “Way to go!”