Jeff Ford

Hey, you called it like you experienced it. He heard and reached out. You apologized. Its all good. Thats how life should work if its going right.

I once had bad experiences with a couple writers from the Mustang Monthly staff back in 1991 (before there was a place like the internet where I could vent my experience). I was all of 18, driving my beat to hell Mach 1, had been a faithful subscriber for over 3 years. I had the knowledge and rabid ferver only a Mustang faithful teenager could have, and I had a bit of experience to go along as I'd owned and worked on the car for over 3 years.

I met them at a local cruise in Tampa, where they sat with a couple other folks in lawn chairs making occasional snide remarks about some of the cars, and talking resto stuff among themselves. They were making it plain that they were MM writers (not that I can remember their names for the life of me now). I attempted to make casual conversation and ask a couple questions about a couple resto things and about stuff going on in the magazine (including using a local resto shop for several of their articles). They snubbed me, patronized me, generally dismissed me, and ultimately resorted to outright ignoring me. They even gave me incorrect info about a couple resto questions I asked. So much for encouraging the enthusiasm of youth.

The moral... I don't think any more of magazine guys than I do any other shmoe on the planet. Their literary license (which is often painfully not as witty or clever as they think it is) doesn't mean they've earned any more respect or allowance than they demonstrate and earn in person. They're people, nothing less, nothing more.

I believe that Buddha is right on the mark. May we all learn from it.