This is not the latest update! — I split the older updates into their own pages to keep everything loading quickly. If you're looking for the latest buzz, check the main updates section.

Previous Update - March 4, 2006

March 4, 2006 - More Free Stuff "Slydes" In Another day, another few responses. Not the best day, but it brightened up my Saturday a tad. First order of business: Casualty #3. Boston Market (#77) got bounced back to me. No unceremonious yellow return sticker on this one, either. Just someone giving me the (index) finger and a big ol' "UTF". UTF? Is that like saying "WTF" while holding your tongue? As in, "Ut..the..f...? were you thinking writing to this place?" Who knows. Oh, and on the subject of casualities, I stuck the Long John Silver's letter and the Avis letter back into the mail after digging up two new (and hopefully correct) addresses for these places. I'm down 78 more cents. Trader Joe's (#5), Barilla (#67), and Biore (#24) all sent back a rather plain "no". The wording is so consistent amongst these responses, you'd think they were giving away free legal letters in boxes of Cracker Jack. On second thought, maybe they're just giving away free lawyers in boxes of Cracker Jack. On second second thought, maybe I should have written to Cracker Jack. I may need a lawyer at some point during this experiment. White Castle, on the other hand, sent over some goodies. A stack of coupons equating to two breakfast sandwiches, two orders of chicken rings, and 19 burgers (two sacks of five and three 3'fers). They also sent a letter with a small history of the "Slyder". The letter ended with "Sincerely," but wasn't signed — so I'm guessing they either give away a lot of stuff, or the person who wrote it is a Slyder fan himself and was rushing to the bathroom. In any case, thanks to White Castle. Boston Market Trader Joe's Barilla Biore White Castle March 4, 2006 - A Few Side Notes I received a few e-mails the other day from a handful people who are members of a site which I'll just call a "freebie forum" (I'm not going to badmouth the site just because of a few of its users — but I'm sure as hell not going to plug it by name, either). These people called me a loser, telling me that I'm wasting my time and money and that their forum was "the place to be" for free stuff. So, I reassured myself that my experiment was a social experiment (not an attempt to stock my cabinets with free stuff), and I moseyed over to this "ultimate forum" to see what I'd supposedly been missing out on. Here's an excerpt from a freebie that I'd sorely been lacking all these years: [film name omitted] is the first documentary film that chronicles the lives of individuals with psoriasis. Through candid interviews the film explores the day-to-day experiences of those living with psoriasis... So, wait... Let me get this straight... I'm a loser — but there are people out there who would not only admit to owning a psoriasis documentary, but would actually brag about getting one for free? Enough said.