Those of you who know me know I love my Modern Ferret magazine.  I received
mine Wed., and found the articles excellent and pictures of ferrets
tantalizing.  Mary looks truly beautiful to me as a blond.  Her writing is
professional and diverse.  Eric photographs skillfully.  And I have no
conception as to how just two people can make a magazine and sell it.  It
is a mind boggling phenomenon.  I know neither of these people, by the way.
 
I did a casual 3 day study of page 1 and the centerfold of Modern Ferret
involving 61 people who walked into my office.  The magazine was on the
table.  I asked them to look at the centerfold of the Halloween issue and
tell me what they thought.  Upon their leaving, I asked them to look at the
first page with the ferret in the dinosaur mouth.
 
There is no way to say how many different ways people reacted badly to
the centerfold picture of faked gore without adding a few pages to this
writing.  The people were between age 30 and 65.  None had ferrets.  Most
had children.  Few were Christian.  Most were white collar.
 
The reaction was strong and negative in all 61 people.  I did not look at
them while they picked up the magazine.  I repeated that it was a Halloween
scary picture to be sure they understood when I did look and saw the
confusion and disgust on their faces.  I was smiling and my usual cheerful
self.  But the reactions were almost violent.
 
Not a one thought that there was ANYTHING funny in the centerfold.  Women
made twisted faces and proclaimed they felt sick or felt like crying.  They
would never let their child have this magazine or look at it.  Men with
stronger stomachs were surprisingly negative: all of them!
 
Upon exiting, I asked all of them to look at page 1.  Every one of them
made a noise.  It was a guffaw, or tee hee, or a giggle or snort, or
outright laugh.  Actually, there were many outright laughs!!!.  The ferret
in the dinosaur mouth brought a beaming smile and pleasant comment to 61
out of 61 faces.
 
I write this because it is probable that many people not on this list might
have asked a pet store to take this magazine off the shelf.  The centerfold
was highly offensive to all of the people that came into my office over a
three day period..
 
I do not want to lose Bob C. from our list.  But if stores are pulling this
magazine off shelves, I find it improbable that it was all done by one
person on FML complaining.
 
We all seem to have such differing ideas and humor.  Most likely it is
regional, cultural, age and interest related in part.  But if 61 out of
61 people found the centerfold highly offensive in this tiny area of the
universe, maybe this is true elsewhere.
 
I would be extremely upset if my friends might lose their business and I
thought it was done by people on this list that I was helping.  But with
the results of this small casual study--I personally do not believe that
this is the case.
 
Lisette
[Posted in FML issue 2788]