Dear Conoco/Phillips 66:

Recently on the way home I needed to top off the air pressure in my tires. I used to live near your store at the intersection of Alameda and Simms in Lakewood, Colorado, and knew there was a compressed air pump there.

I went inside and asked the employee if he would turn it on for me, which he did, and said I was all set to use it.

At first I thought the connection was bad, but then the longer I worked with the air compressor, the lower my air pressure became until I had a completely flat tire.

I mentioned this to the employee, who told me that it was inevitable since the air compressor doesn't work when the weather is cold. He informed me that there was no other compressed air on site, and I would just have to sit in the parking lot or call a tow truck for my car.

Luckily, your competitor across the street had an air compressor machine that worke, and I was able to get the situation taken care of. You have, however lost me as a customer at that store. Please have the managers there inform the staff that they should tell people the air compressor doesn't work, rather than gracing your customers with flat tires.

Thank you,

Dear Kroger, King Soopers,
CC: Safeway

I was very excited a few years ago to find that my local Denver area King Soopers was stocking Twining's tea from London. They make great tea (with the exception of their Lapsang Suchong). I have tried many other brands of tea, and there is something uniquely splendid about Twinings. I went to buy my fix recently, and noticed at two different King Soopers that the Twinings product line was discontinued.

I'm writing to let you know that this anchor product for me is in stock at Safeway, across the street from your King Soopers store. And tonight when I needed groceries, I went there instead.

The atmosphere at Safeway is lacking, produce department limited, and staff rather unprofessional, but they carry the product that I like, which King Soopers stopped carrying.

I am the customer who enjoys Twinings tea enough that I'm writing you a letter about it. I just thought you should know that this very loyal King Soopers customer is now spending half of my money at your competitor because you decided not to stock the product - would you like to just stock it at my local store, or would that be too much to ask?

Thank you for your time,

Dear NBC Chairman Wright:

I just heard about NBC's censoring of Veggie Tales.

I am not a big fan of Veggie Tales - I think the writing quality has deteriorated significantly since the series began, and the Biblical parallels they claim to have are very weak, sometimes insultingly so. I understand that the aim is to latch onto the popularity of VeggieTales and remove the religious aspect in order to market it to a wider audience.

With you I also think it is ironic that you are receiving nasty e-mails from 'Christians' yelling and screaming because the line: "Calm down. The Bible says we should love our enemies" has been cut.

I'm not writing because I think NBC should be "marketing God," though this is likely what many people who have been alerted by the "religious right" are e-mailing or calling you about.

There are two reasons why I find this censorship:

1. Deciding after agreeing to air the show seems unethical from a business perspective. The creator of Veggie Tales, Phil Vischer, is quoted as saying had he known how much censorship NBC would exercise, he would not have signed on for the network deal, and that the episodes had already been edited down to the right timing. I'm not saying it's illegal, I'm sure NBC has something in the contract which allows this, I'm just saying it seems unethical.

2. NBC's censorship seems rather slanted. NBC has no need for censorship when Madonna mocks Jesus and the cross - this rock-star desire to offend the general public has been part of the rock & roll culture for a long time - rebellion, lack of restraint, and destruction of everything that society stands for - this pubescent rebellion is part of the music industry. I was unaware that NBC had chosen to stand in pubescent rebellion as well. If this is not the case, the only other explanation seems to be blatant hipocracy.

I'm not asking for NBC to "preach the Gospel" (God help us if network executives rather than those who have studied in textual criticism and theology become responsible for teaching truth!) I'm just asking for fairness, honesty, and integrity.

The religious right does seem to be on to something when they talk about anti-Christian bias and censorship in the media. The contrast of Madonna vs. Veggie Tales sure makes it look that way.

Thanks for your time, to whatever (likely entry level?) person (or automatic computer filter system) who read this.

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