I was reading Dad Gone Mad today, and DGM was talking about fan mail and his fan letter to the Fonz. Thankfully, I am old enough to know who the Fonz is. I’m sure there are people that run in my social circles who don’t know who the Fonz is, and I’d put money on that. But I digress. DSM was talking about writing fan letters, and posed the following questions, “When was the last time you wrote a fan letter? When was the last time you told someone how much their work means to you? If you were going to write a piece of fan mail today, to whom would you write it?” And of course, me having the attention span of a fruit fly, simply read and answered the first question.
When was the last time you wrote a fan letter?
I wrote a letter to Mike Tyson when he was at the height of his boxing career and married to Robin Givens. I know, I know — WTF? I had to have been like, 10 years old. I can’t even begin to guess what I wrote in that letter. I’m sure it was a request for an autograph, but I probably wasn’t with it enough to ask for some tickets to a match or something. Hey, we lived in NJ at the time, same as “Iron” Mike, and I thought, “I bet he’ll invite me over to his mansion for dinner!” Yeah, what did I know. I do remember that I got an 8×10 autographed glossy in the mail, which I promptly lost. Still, I have the memory *sniff, sniff*.
For you, my dear readers, I shall answer the other two questions.
When was the last time you told someone how much their work means to you?
Probably this side of never. I’m not one to fawn or fuss all over people, especially now that I’m older. If I am really moved by something and happen to see the artist, I’ll say to them how much I enjoyed their work. That’s about it. I’m constantly telling Mo how I love her use of the orange crayon when she draws concentric circles over Elmo’s face in her coloring book.
If you were going to write a piece of fan mail today, to whom would you write it?
That’s a toughie. I have my simple Hollywood crushes (hellooooooo, Wentworth Miller), but in terms of being someone’s biggest fan? Don’t really have anyone coming to mind. I will say that I admire the work of several authors, photographers, TV personalities, but I don’t see myself breaking out the nice stationery and stamps. Besides, my lifetime appointment as President, CEO, CFO, and all around Chief-High-Priestess-Number-One-Biggest-Fan of the Mo and Co Super Fan club prohibits me from making any solicitations to any non Mo and Co Super Fan Club members.
