Magazine Subscription Scams

Dear Madame L,

I keep getting notices in the mail that look like bills. They have my exact name and address and a bunch of numbers like on the mailing labels for various magazines I subscribe to. But they're not from the actual magazines, but from some other company.

I've been throwing them away, because after all I keep track of what magazines I subscribe to and when I have renewed them or not. But why isn't some government agency doing something about this?

Sincerely,

I May Be Dumb, But I'm Not Stupid


Dear Scam Spotter,

Madame L is glad you have not paid these "bills." This is indeed a scam, mostly aimed at seniors, and it seems to be working on some people.

If you pay these, and your subscription is not renewed, and you contact the magazine, they will most likely inform you that they have no relationship with the company that sends out the fake bills, and you will be out the money.

There are many other scams out there, some of which are listed on this page. Please continue to be vigilant! And thanks for sharing your experience, for the benefit of Madame L's other Dear and Faithful Readers.

Sincerely,

Madame L

Weird Word of the Week: Reticule

Madame L chanced upon this word in "Aunt Dimity and the Duke," by Nancy Atherton.*

In this book, a reticule is a small handbag, with netting and a drawstring, decorated with embroidery or beading (which is Google's definition of the word). Ruth and Louise Pym, 90-something-year-old twins whom the heroine of the story meets early on, carry reticules.

Google also provided Madame L with a plethora of images of reticules, such as this one.

Madame L loves the very idea of such a reticule and hopes you, her Dear Readers, will do a Google image search to see some of the many lovely variations of reticules.

Madame L had heard the word in another context, though, so she looked it up to be sure, and, sure enough, a reticule is also the "network of tiny lines that make up a sighting device's eyepiece" (which is the Vocabulary.com definition of the word). These could be in a gun scope or sight, a telescope, or a microscope.

Madame L was fascinated to learn that the word reticule, which is also sometimes spelled "reticle," comes from the Latin "reticulatus," because of the net-like pattern, which comes from the Latin "reticulum," or "little net."

Madame L would love to have read a spell like "Reticulatus!" in the Harry Potter books resulting in a spider-web-like net being thrown over a bad guy. Even better, she would love to read a book in which little old ladies like Ruth and Louise Pym are carrying their dainty little reticules while looking through a telescope's reticule.

*Madame L will write a review of this book, anon ("soon, shortly"). Madame L is inspired to use words like "anon" when she reads words like "reticule" in books like "Aunt Dimity and the Duke."

Why Soda Is Even Worse For You Than You Thought

Dear Readers,

Someone has just sent Madame L a message with a link to a fascinating article explaining that many sugar-sweetened soda drinks are even worse for the body than many of us have thought.

This is because have more fructose in them than they claim or admit to having, an amount of fructose that is correlated with diabetes and liver damage. This graphic makes it clear.

Do read the original article, which explains in more detail about fructose versus sucrose, diabetes, and the liver. And do note that the information, and the graphic, come from a real journal, "Obesity," not some fashion or feel-good or fake-fitness magazine.

Predicting Earthquakes

Dear Madame L,

I just read an article about some guy who says you CAN predict when earthquakes will take place, despite what some scientists say. Specifically, this man who used to be a teacher in California says he noticed that earthquakes always happened around dusk or dawn, and he says this is because of “conjoined lunar and solar gravitational tides."

What do YOU say?

Sincerely,

Living in California and Wanting to Stay Alive There


Dear Californian,

Since Madame L is not a scientist herself, she must decline to comment except to say that in general she tends to trust the scientific judgment of actual scientists who are specialists in the field being discussed. For example, Madame L refers you to the blog of Dr. Jeff Wynn, a USGS scientist who says earthquakes cannot be predicted with accuracy.

Thus Madame L tends NOT to trust the observations of a "guy" or even a "man" who used to be a teacher in California. Madame L also used to live in California, and also experienced some earthquakes, none of which occurred around dusk or dawn. While Madame L must assume the teacher was a good teacher, she does not feel compelled to assume that he's a good scientific observer or gatherer or analyst of data.

In addition to the general blog address of Dr. Wynn, which Madame L recommends highly as a place to browse about earth sciences and science in general, Madame L suggests you read the following:

"What states are safe from earthquakes?"

"Are tsunamis and volcanic eruptions a result of other catastrophic natural disasters?"

"With every fault is there an earthquake?"  

"Earthquakes and climate change --- related?"

"Earthquakes --- how often?"

"The largest possible Bay Area earthquake"

Dr. Wynn will be writing again about this topic soon because lately two seismologists have published a paper in "Science" (which has stirred up an ants nest among seismologists) claiming that certain very large earthquakes might be predicted.

Meanwhile, Madame L will be watching with bated breath (ha ha ha) for the guy's prediction of earthquakes on "July 12 and Sept. 9, between 4:45 to 7:55 a.m. and/or p.m."

"If I had a dollar for every one of those predictions that has proven to be false, I could finally buy a new car!" comments Dr. Wynn.

Good luck in California,

Madame L

National Parks on Memorial Day

Dear Madame L,

I think you wrote once about free entrance fees for national parks on certain holidays. Do those days include Memorial Day or maybe even the whole Memorial Day weekend?

Sincerely,

Fan of the National Parks


Dear Fan,

Unfortunately, those "free fee days" do not include Memorial Day. Here's where you can find which days the participating parks are free. The remaining free days in 2014 are Aug. 25 (National Park Service Birthday), Sept. 27 (National Public Lands Day), and Nov. 11 (Veterans Day).

The list of participating parks is here.

And, by the way, you may be interested in an annual national park pass, which is only $80, and will get you and your car full of family (details at that link) into every and any national park. 

If you're 62 or older, you can get a lifetime pass for $10. Madame L once got into a national park with a small tour group courtesy of one member of the group who had that kind of pass.

And, if you're in the military, you can get in for free.

Madame L hopes you'll still visit  a National Park this Memorial Day weekend, and, if you do, you'll let Madame L and her other Dear Readers know how much fun it was.

Sincerely,

Madame L

P.S. You might have a better chance of seeing the meteor shower at a National Park Friday night, than at your own home, too!

Meteor Shower Friday Night!

Dear Star-Gazing Readers,

Madame L has just read about an amazing meteor shower that may be visible to many people in North America this Friday night (May 23).

Not that Madame L is expecting to be able to watch, since it's always overcast where she lives. But she hopes that those of you who live above the clouds, or wherever you can look up and see stars, will watch and let Madame L know how glorious it was.

The astronomy writer on Slate.com, where Madame L read about this, writes:

Predicted rates for this new shower are quite high, about 100–400 meteors per hour, far higher than normal showers. And they’ll appear to be coming from an area of the sky near the north pole, so they should be visible raining down all over the sky!

As the Earth orbits the Sun, it sometimes crosses these trails. When that happens we plow into this interplanetary junk, and it burns up in our atmosphere, creating meteors. They appear to come from a single point in the sky called the radiant, because the meteors appear to radiate outward from it (see the photo at the top of this post). This is due to perspective, and is similar to how lights on the walls and ceiling of a tunnel all seem to come from a point directly ahead of you as you drive through the tunnel, and they fan out as you pass them. The radiant for this shower is in the relatively obscure constellation Camelopardalis, the giraffe, very near the north pole of the sky.

Please read that whole article to learn more about the meteor shower, the "parent" comet, how to watch, and more.

(And especially to look at the magnificent photos!)

Sincerely, and wistfully,

Madame L
 

What's Wrong With These People? (Chair Stealer at B&N)

Dear Madame L,

I was in my local bookstore the other day. I wandered around for awhile looking at books and magazines and then I put my notebooks down on a table in the coffee shop and went to the counter to order a hot chocolate.

As I waited for my hot cocoa, I happened to turn around and see a man at my table, pawing through my notebooks. I walked over and said, "This is my stuff. What are you doing?"

He said, "I want to sit here, and nobody is sitting here." He put down my notebooks and stood there staring at me.

I noticed he was wearing an NRA cap. I didn't see a gun anywhere, but apparently now you can carry them anywhere, even into a bookstore, just in case there's some lawless book-lover there whose notebooks you might have to forcefully remove from a table where you want to sit, even though there are more than 10 other tables, empty, in the place.

I said, "I'm sitting here, or I will be, in a minute or two. That's why I put my things here." After staring at me for another second or two, he finally moved to another table.

But if he'd shown a gun and started waving it around, I'll bet I would have let him have the table.

What's wrong with these people?

Sincerely,

Should Have Been Scared Witless


Dear Scared,

Madame L does not know what's wrong with these people, but she would have been scared, too. Gun-toting demonstrators have lately felt they could, and should, celebrate their Second Amendment rights by showing up at all kinds of public establishments with their gun-loving pals, waving their weapons around and wondering why people don't like it. (Interestingly, though, they do this in groups, because even the stupidest among them grok that if they show up alone, waving a gun around, they'll be mistaken for a crook [see below for more on this aspect].)

From the article Madame L linked to above:

Just last week open carry proponents decided to have one of their “demonstrations” by going into a Jack in the Box en masse, scaring the employees so badly that they hid in the walk-in freezer. The so-called demonstrators seemed confused by the response of police who assumed there was an armed robbery in progress and dispatched a phalanx of cops.

“We’re not breaking the laws,” Haros said. “We’re not here to hurt anybody. We’re not trying to alarm anybody. We’re doing this because it’s our constitutional right.”

Haros, who believes openly carrying firearms helps police, said citizens should know that the demonstrations will continue.

“It’s just for safety purposes,” Haros said. “Officers can’t be there at all times. We understand that. They can only do so much.”

So this fine fellow believes he is doing this to protect the public. And while they don’t wear uniforms so you can’t identify them, have no specialized training in the law, are not bound by police protocols or answer to the authority of the democratic system of government of the people, they have taken it upon themselves to look after all of us because the police are busy. (And presumably, unless you are wearing a hoodie and they think you look suspicious, you probably won’t get shot dead by mistake.) We used to have a name for this. It was called vigilantism. One can only hope that when a “bad guy” really does show up at your Jack in the Box or Starbucks and one of these self-appointed John Waynes decides to draw his weapon you’ll be as lucky as the innocent civilian who narrowly escaped being killed in error at the Gabrielle Giffords shooting. 

All of this is allegedly being done to protect our freedoms. But it’s only the “freedom” of the person wearing a firearm that matters. Those parents who want their kids to feel safe in a public park aren’t free to tell a man waving a gun around to leave them alone, are they? Patrons and employees of Starbucks aren’t free to express their opinion of open carry laws when one of these demonstrations are taking place in the store. Those Jack in the Box employees aren’t free to refuse service to armed customers. Sure, they are all theoretically free to do those things. It’s their constitutional right just like it’s the constitutional right of these people to carry a gun. But in the real world, sane people do not confront armed men and women. They don’t argue with them over politics. They certainly do not put their kids in harm’s way in order to make a point. So when it comes right down to it, when you are in the presence of one of these armed citizens, you don’t really have any rights at all.  

You can see why they think that’s freedom. It is. For them. The rest of us just have to be very polite, keep our voices down and back away very slowly, saying, “Yes sir, whatever you say, sir,” and let them have their way.

 Madame L is personally acquainted with several people who think they should be able to carry their loaded weapons into movie theaters, parks, churches, and, yes, Jack-in-the-Boxes, to show their freedoms. Madame L tries to stay as far away from these vigilantes, and their places of film-watching, recreation, worship, and eating, as she can. Because these people are NOT police, they are NOT trained in gun safety or police tactics, they do NOT know how to tell a "good guy" from a "bad guy," they are NOT helping anyone, they are NOT keeping anyone safe, and they ARE, simply, and deliberately, scaring a lot of innocent and harmless people.

Other than that very personal and visceral reaction, Madame L has no solution to the problem. Other Dear Readers, your suggestions?

Sincerely, and with some trepidation,

Madame L