In the New Yorker...

[Jeff Wrangler]

Based on the entry in the TOC, I would not have read Tad Friend's article about salesmen in the Aug. 8 issue. Then in the news feed on my phone this morning, I noticed a reference to an article about door-to-door salesmen, and I figured that must mean Friend's article. I checked out the article, and I'm finding it quite entertaining.

[Front-Ranger]

Based on the entry in the TOC, I would not have read Tad Friend's article about salesmen in the Aug. 8 issue. Then in the news feed on my phone this morning, I noticed a reference to an article about door-to-door salesmen, and I figured that must mean Friend's article. I checked out the article, and I'm finding it quite entertaining.

That was actually featured in the NY Times daily newsletter today.

[serious crayons]

I started this briefly but didn't get into it. I'll try again!

[Jeff Wrangler]

I started this briefly but didn't get into it. I'll try again!

You might not want to bother. It goes kind of downhill at the end. 

But I still found it scarcely believable that you can earn the amounts of money the article talks about in door-to-door sales.

Who's going to sign a contract for a new roof with some slick talker who knocks on your door? 

[serious crayons]

Who's going to sign a contract for a new roof with some slick talker who knocks on your door? 

I did! With my insurance company's approval, of course. And it worked out great.

The roofers stopped by my yard, said they could see some hail damage, wrote up an estimate, the insurance claims adjuster approved it, their estimate included a few things like dings on drainpipes that weren't absolutely essential so the roofers didn't do those, which meant I got the money in the check from the insurance company for them but didn't have to pay the roofers for them so that covered my $2,500 deductible.

Voila, nice new roof, including replacement of some areas of the wood underneath the shingles that was starting to rot.

Bonuses: The workers accidentally started doing the detached garage, which wasn't part of the estimate, and the roofing representative didn't bother to stop them so I got the garage for free. This was a year before I sold my house so I could say on the disclosure form that my roof had been replaced the previous year!

[Jeff Wrangler]

You might not want to bother. It goes kind of downhill at the end. 
Who's going to sign a contract for a new roof with some slick talker who knocks on your door? 

I did! With my insurance company's approval, of course. And it worked out great.

The roofers stopped by my yard, said they could see some hail damage, wrote up an estimate, the insurance claims adjuster approved it, their estimate included a few things like dings on drainpipes that weren't absolutely essential so the roofers didn't do those, which meant I got the money in the check from the insurance company for them but didn't have to pay the roofers for them so that covered my $2,500 deductible.

Voila, nice new roof, including replacement of some areas of the wood underneath the shingles that was starting to rot.

Bonuses: The workers accidentally started doing the detached garage, which wasn't part of the estimate, and the roofing representative didn't bother to stop them so I got the garage for free. This was a year before I sold my house so I could say on the disclosure form that my roof had been replaced the previous year!

Yes, but you got your insurance company's approval. Seems to me that's a big and important difference. That's not the sort of thing talked about in the article. Plus, around here we fairly regularly hear of swindles about things like that.

[serious crayons]

Yes, but you got your insurance company's approval. Seems to me that's a big and important difference. That's not the sort of thing talked about in the article. Plus, around here we fairly regularly hear of swindles about things like that.

Yes, getting my insurance company's approval was a big and important difference. So the question is not really who would sign a contract with a slick-talking roofing swindler, but who would do so without first calling their insurance company?

Of course, roofs can go bad in ways insurance doesn't cover. But they are extremely expensive to replace, so it seems like it would always be worth a call. And if they wouldn't cover it, I would get a second or third opinion on whether a new roof is needed. And probably also ask for references.

I was nervous myself when I did this because I'd heard of roofing swindlers, too. But I figured I couldn't really lose -- the roofers submitted an estimate and when the insurance company approved it, I wasn't going to get charged. I myself was slightly nervous about the estimate including things like dinged drain spouts that didn't absolutely need to be replaced, thereby covering my deductible. But since the deductible was $2,500 and I was about to sell my house, I figured it would be worth paying if I had to for the increased value of the house. Luckily, I didn't have to.

[Front-Ranger]

I read the article about Biden's family in the latest issue. But I felt kind of dirty about it. Much sadness.

[Front-Ranger]

In the AUgust 22 issue there is a very good and not-too-long article on Nora Ephron. I miss her! Louis Menaud's article on the many ways our votes get waylaid was also very good. Shouts & Murmurs has gone downhill again. And the cover is divine.

[serious crayons]

In the AUgust 22 issue there is a very good and not-too-long article on Nora Ephron. I miss her! Louis Menaud's article on the many ways our votes get waylaid was also very good. Shouts & Murmurs has gone downhill again. And the cover is divine.

Agreed on all. S&M was dumb. I don't like when they're so fanciful they just seem silly. I like them to be just on the edge of reality. The James Taylor one in a recent issue was OK -- the idea of having James Taylor for a roommate is fanciful but the S&M was a reasonably realistic and funny depiction of how that situation would play out.

I'm just finishing Nora Ephron and will go on to Louis Menand next. Louis is on my list of New Yorker writers who I'll almost always read, or at least check out.

Here's a weird New Yorker experience. My son works in PR and is looking for a job. He interviewed for one at Edelman, the country's biggest PR firm, in which his only client would be Taco Bell. That doesn't sound ideal to me (he has typically worked with a handful of clients simultaneously; personally I'd prefer variety), and he's not going to take the job anyway because it would require him to move to Los Angeles and his girlfriend is a teacher in Chicago.

But his situation reminded me of a S&M I'd read years ago imagining product placement in literature similar to the product placement in movies. One example was a poem that said something like "and then I heard the ringing bell" and the S&M suggested making it "and then I heard the Taco Bell." I LOLed at that and have remembered that line -- and pretty much nothing else -- ever since.

It took me forever to find it but I finally did. It ran on March 7, 1994, almost exactly two years before Jack was born. I've already suggested to Jack that he try that strategy.