my award-winning letter.

A silly conversation at work brought back memories. In the meeting, someone said something along the lines of "well, that was just hooey." Someone else was unfamiliar with the word "hooey," and I had to define it.


And that reminded me of a letter I wrote to the Ann Arbor News back in 1988. Back then, I was a grad student, and my hobby (such as it was) was writing letters to the "Letters" sections of publications. Some of these letters were serious. Some...less so. At any rate, around that time the nation saw a spate of supposed Elvis sightings. There was a book about them. And the News ran a tongue-in-cheek article about how Elvis was often visiting Ann Arbor.


So I wrote a letter. And it got published. This one stands among my favorites. Not so much for itself and its own merits, but because at the end of the year the News ran a little piece in which the editors they selected their favorite letters. And mine was chosen as one of the honorees.


And that, gentle readers, is how I became a writer of award-winning letters.