Private Eye

March 15, 2013

Hi James,

It's Tom from the Private Eye classifieds, was just wondering if I can have a bit more information on what your ad means? Just need to get some more on it before I can get it into the issue!

Thanks,

Tom

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March 17

Hi Tom, on the Wednesday morning before I booked the ad, I had a dream in which Jesus told me to put the message -

'Every field in Britain was found to contain Brown GM.'

- in Eye Say. He stipulated the Brown had a capital B. He did not tell me what it meant, he told me it was a good one and I was put it in Eye Say. I'm glad you emailed as I had remembered the message incorrectly when I booked the ad. The correct wording (with 10 words) is in this email. I would be grateful if you could correct it. 

Thanks,

James

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March 18

Good morning James,

Thanks for your response, I can get your ad in for the 5th April issue - the 22nd March issue is now closed. That way we can get the amendment in too.

But before we can place it we need to have an idea of what message you are trying to convey, or else they won't let it go to the printers. I can mention to the decision makers  that it came to you in a dream, from Jesus, however I know that there's a high chance they will still not let it in! If you could provide a little more in terms of explanation there is a better chance your ad will make it to print!

I look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,

Tom

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March 18

Hi Tom, this seems bizarre. I would basically take it as a warning about GM. 

If you want a more detailed opinion of the message, I think it is apparent it might be with regard to the future (although organisms can spread very quickly for example via clouds), Brown might relate to Gordon (who called for a rethink on GM in 2008) or Tracey (prominent GM advocate), or might just be the colour brown with a contextual capital. 'Every field in Britain' might reflect the known scientific fact that wind can blow wheat pollen, and that genes pass between wheat and common wild relatives. If you have read differently in The Free Media, try:

'With this combined approach, we detected substantial gene flow between wheat and Aegilops species.'

'Nevertheless, a several admixed individuals were observed in populations distant from wheat cultivations (i.e. the SP12, SP15 and IT8 populations, collected at 800 m, >5 km and >15 km from cultivations, respectively, Fig. 3). Because long-distance pollen dispersal of wheat has been reported (De Vries 1971; Zaharieva and Monneveux 2006; Matus-Cadiz et al. 2007), it might partly explain our results.'

Both quotes are from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3352535/

If anyone is concerned about perceived innuendo with Brown, the recurring 'our dogs arse' ad in Eye Say has nothing to do with me, and if anyone is concerned about people perceiving a connection between the messages, I have not said anything mucky - aside from which there was a Gordon Browntrouser front page of Private Eye a few years ago.

This never use to happen.

Thank you for your consideration

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March 19

Good morning James,

Thanks for getting back to me - that explanation should suffice.

We get a lot of proposed adverts through, and if Private Eye ask us for an explanation as to what an advert means, we need to be able to provide an explanation.

Hope that's all okay, and thank you for your co-operation. If you need anything else please don't hesitate to get in contact. 

As it stands I'll get your amended ad in for 5th April, as follows:

"Every field in Britain was found to contain Brown GM"

Best wishes,

Tom

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March 19

Thanks!

 If you might require my favoured interpretation it would be a warning about the potential spread of GM resulting from the 2008 rethink called for by Gordon Brown.

All the best

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March 26

Hi again James,

My apologies once more but Private Eye have said they would like it to be reworded as they feel it does not make enough sense at the moment. 

It is Private Eye who have the final say and in this case this is the only information I have.

If you can reword and send it over, I will endeavour to get it placed.

Best wishes,

Tom

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March 26

Dear Tom,

I would consider it Satanic to alter a message from Jesus. If the Private Eye do not wish to publish it, perhaps we could go with this:

Eye Say! https://orphadeus.angelfire.com/galacticextinction/private-eye.html

It looks to be within 10 words. 

Yours faithfully,

James

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On 22 April, having had no reply and the money having not been returned, I visited Redactive. The money was refunded while I waited and I was giving a receipt for the refund and have received a standard email from Redactive saying the money has been refunded. However, the money has not (yet?) appeared on my card, the online account history for today (22 April) indicating no transaction.

I also received a verbal apology for the money not being refunded a few weeks ago. Actually they should have published the ad without any answer.

By mysterious coincidence, I am currently (now the 23rd) unable to access my mastercard account.

The current balance was 34.23. 

Tom was Tom Poole, a sales executive for Redactive Media Group, which has run Private Eye classifieds since October 2011. On the occasions when I used Redactive to place a message in Private Eye, I think it was every time but the first (it might have been every time) there was bizarre and interfering behaviour. For example:

22/6/12

 Hi James,

The 'puzzling' message was:

Rothamsted Research and the Media: https://orphadeus.angelfire.com/galacticextinction/rothamsted-research.html