>From: [log in to unmask]
>Not a one thought that there was ANYTHING funny in the centerfold.
>The reaction was strong and negative in all 61 people. Upon exiting, I
>asked all of them to look at page 1. The ferret in the dinosaur mouth
>brought a beaming smile and pleasant comment to 61 out of 61 faces.
>We all seem to have such differing ideas and humor.
I could not agree with Lisette's above statement more. I was part of the
decision to take and publish the centerfold photograph. Personally, I did
not feel that anyone who read the large letters saying "Halloween" would
have taken the centerfold to be anything but that - a staged Halloween
photo taken to excess (much of what we do in Modern Ferret is taken to
excess). I am as surprised that from your sample of 61 people there was
such unanimous dislike of the centerfold and like of the page 1. From my
personal experiences in showing the photos to a variety of people it has
not been so clear-cut as to what is funny and what is not. We chose to
let the combination of our taste & Harry Anderson's taste decide.
As I've said, much of what we do with Modern Ferret is taken to excess -
back when we started there was no such thing as color magazines for ferrets
and we've always been busy stretching the concept of a magazine (those who
have seen back issues might remember tear-outs like the "Trixies or Treats"
and the holiday gift tags or the copious faked movie ads like "Rats Wars",
"Austin Poopers", and "I Know Who You Bathed Last Summer."). We've really
not limited ourselves to the typical pet magazine sanitized fare - and
sometimes we may reach farther than some of our readers would like us to go.
Our very first issue of Modern Ferret displayed in full color what "Green
Slime" (ECE) poops looked like in the litterbox so that ferret owners would
recognize the symptoms as something bad and know that their ferret needed
medical attention. Many folks complained that was "gross." Many of our
friends (especially those who are not ferret owners) said, "Yuck!" However,
all of them remember that if they see a ferret pooping like that, then they
know that the ferret has a problem. Back in 1995, there was no other place
that such photos could be published so that ferret owners could see them in
color. Was that worth offending a few people over?
(Note: I am glad to say that issue #24 contains the news announcement that
the virus that causes ECE has been isolated - an important step in coming
up with a vaccine.)
Other early issues featured medical articles that showed some graphic
ferret guts and medical procedures. Dr. Bruce Williams felt that there was
a lack of accessible veterinary information and we obliged by publishing
these somewhat gory (REAL gore, not faked!) medical photos and articles.
More recently, ferrets have been much better represented in veterinary
literature and we have switched to more owner-oriented medical articles
(publishing photographs of what adrenal ferrets look like for easy visual
recognition, etc).
Nearly every issue of Modern Ferret has managed to offend someone. Really.
Sometimes it was more of a stretch than others. We've taken heat for
running an article about a ferret owner's experience smuggling ferrets
into CA. We've taken heat for telling ferret owners what PeTA says about
ferrets (see issue #19). We've had complaints because we run articles
about ferret breeding. We've had complaints for running a photo of a
ferret with a rabbit (even though I know of a photo of ferrets with a
rabbit that was seen even more prominently than ours). We've even had
complaints that "Ferrets don't talk!" (like who is that person kidding?).
(Due to the lack of complaints, I suppose that no one has the art sense to
notice who is scratching Trixie's itch on page 36.)
So tell me should we make all medical, care, legalization, humorous,
moralistic, etc. topics off limits? What would ferret owners like to
see remaining?
Should we cease publishing, or should we continue taking risks? Risks: as
in edgy editorial that could somehow upset or offend someone (anyone?) as
well as Risks: as in we depend on sales of the magazine to earn a living
- - -
Why Celebrities?
Why is Modern Ferret doing all this stuff with celebrities?
Celebrities ENDORSE products. That's the American way. What does that
mean to us at Modern Ferret? We'd like to see more famous people telling
the world that ferrets are nice, friendly animals - because the things
celebrities say get heard.
Can someone like Harry Anderson be heard? Well, a partial rundown of his
past credits includes SNL appearances, 16 Johnny Carson appearances,
several Cheers appearances, and starring in Night Court (84-93) and Dave's
World (93-97), and he can currently be see in 10-10-321 commercials.
I think that gives him more publicity and television experience than most
everyone else on the FML. Certainly, no one else on the FML has claimed
that they can get on any talk shows (and certainly no one else has been the
star on popular TV shows from 1984 to 1997).
I'd say that Harry may seem to have a warped sense of humor at times (as
do I or I wouldn't find him so funny). However, he has a genuine love of
ferrets. It hurts both us at Modern Ferret and Harry Anderson that beyond
not "getting" his humor, ferret people have decided that he is some sort
of evil monster.
To go back a few issues, we featured Tiffany Taylor in a wonderful (and
clean!) pictorial and interview in Modern Ferret. She is a model (in both
senses of the word) ferret owner who takes excellent care of her ferrets
(all of whom were rescued from situations in which they were unwanted
except for her most recent addition of an angora baby). She appeared on an
episode of Marc Marrone's Metro Pets show and did an excellent job talking
about how much she enjoyed owning ferrets as well as the responsibilities
that ferret ownership entails. Surely some of you FML-ers have seen the
episode.
Unfortunately, many ferret owners felt they should attack her because she
is a Playboy Playmate rather than utilize her talents as an excellent
speaker to promote ferrets as pets while encouraging responsible ferret
ownership.
- - -
CA Legalization
The latest news from the Ferrets Anonymous website (www.ferretsanon.com)
>Updated Aug 25th - AB 854 Withdrawn - Becomes A Two Year Bill
>And if you've been following this for any length of time - you know what
>that means, ferret legalization is dead in California until 2002. The
>details are sketchy at this point, but apparently Senator Patrick Johnson
>would not let our bill be heard and Assemblyman Cunneen (the sponsor)
>withdrew it. Does California suck or what? Where else in the world could
>this happen. Stay tuned for clarification and the plans of California's
>ferret lovers.
Gee. If only we could get some famous people who could go on TV and tell
people that ferrets are wonderful, friendly little animals. That ferrets
should be legalized because they are good, domesticated animals.
But ferret people rarely get the opportunity to speak on any talk shows.
However, if we could just get celebrities (who go on those kinds of shows
all the time) to go out and talk about ferrets, then ferrets would be seen
and heard by the viewing (voting) public at large.
Unfortunately, ferret people seem to be too busy attacking Modern Ferret,
Tiffany Taylor, and Harry Anderson to utilize them as spokespeople
(something that celebrities are known for being good at). Instead, ferret
people are so busy attacking the us that bad news about CA legalization
several days old has gone unnoticed.
So does anyone have any other celebrities or magazines that they'd rather
see pointing out the wrongness in ferrets being illegal in CA and New York
City?
- Eric
Modern Ferret Magazine - For ferret owners. By ferret owners.
Mary & Eric Shefferman & the Fuzzies: Sabrina, Marshmallow, Knuks, Trixie,
Bosco da Gama, Balthazar, Cauliflower, Koosh, and Gabrielle
http://www.modernferret.com
[Posted in FML issue 2790]
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