Los Angeles, California
July 13, 2000

Dear Readers,

Today’s letter is by Scott Carrier, a writer and radio reporter in Salt Lake City, Utah. He is a curious man, in the literal sense of the word, driven by a need to experiment and discover and to answer questions that others might not even think to ask. An example: he and his brother have spent years testing out a theory they came up with when they were boys: that it’s possible for two men, in peak physical condition, to outrun an antelope. They have yet to succeed in this quest, but Scott created an informative and inspiring and, again, curious radio story about it for This American Life. Another example: today’s letter, a less arduous investigation, into crickets and Toyota pick-ups and true love.

Scott used to record his stories for This American Life in his backyard; if you listen to this show, for instance, (fast forward the Real Audio to 24 minutes in), you’ll hear him out there in the Salt Lake City night, telling stories about football and haiku. In the background, if you listen carefully, you can hear a train. You can also hear crickets.

David Handelman, a columnist for Mediaweek, wrote a generous story about Open Letters that was posted yesterday. It’s nice to have someone other than myself interpreting the magazine publicly, and I like and mostly concur with the way David describes things. Except: I do copy edit. I must have told him that I didn’t in an attempt to impress him by seeming “beat.” Which is also probably why I said “you know” and “or something like that” so often when we spoke.

I’m a little uncertain about what’s going to happen with the site over the next few days. We have this nice interview with a tech-support guy that I was planning to run on Saturday, but now I’m thinking about doing an entire week of letters and interviews about life at work, beginning on July 24, so I might hold it until then, which might mean that we won’t have a new interview to run on Saturday. Next week’s under control, rest assured, but until Monday, it’s seat-of-our-pants time here at OLHQ. It’s what makes the Internet so exciting. You know? Or something like that.

Yours truly,

Paul Tough