Remember the post a couple weeks ago directing readers to sign a petition seeking to get the Cowsills a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nomination? I wrote it after receiving an email from a woman named Marsha Jordan, who identified herself as the president of the Cowsills Fan Club. She asked that I please sign her online petition, and help spread the word.
So I did, both, and wrote back to ask that she return the favor and please let her list know about the Bubblegum Achivement Awards and International Bubblegum Month.
I guess she didn't appreciate my blog post, in which I called the Cowsills "kids" and suggested they had scant chance of being nominated. In response, I got an email lecture on the Cowsill family's many post-adolescent musical achievements, and nothing about the Bubblegum Awards. The Cowsills are featured in both Scram anthologies, so none of this was news to me, or I assume to our readers.
Y'know, if she had just said "good luck with it, and sorry, but I don't think I want to use the word 'bubblegum' in anything that goes out to my Cowsills list, because they are NOT a bubblegum band" that would have been fine. But she didn't. And I ultimately asked her three times, and which is how many times she ignored me.
A little goodwill and reciprocity goes such a long way. I'm not taking the link to the Cowsills petition down--I'm even linking to it again in this post. It's not the Cowsills' fault that the person representing their fan base lacks common courtesy. But I hope people like Marsha will think twice before they ask others to help promote their pet causes if they are also willing to do anything in return, or to at least respond graciously to a request. Because ultimately none of us has to help spread the word about anything, and it's the ones who drop the ball who make it less fun for all concerned.
No comments:
Post a Comment