Dear Anonymous,

I feel like one of those politicians who makes some kind of gaffe and is taken to task, perhaps rightfully, for a careless and casual comment. A couple of days ago, I posted a photo of a box of TIDE detergent, which you can look at again, HERE. When I posted the photo, which was sent to me on a phone, it struck me as funny in the way old-timey advertisements for housekeeping products strike me as funny. You know the ones, where women vacuum happily around the house in aprons or greet their husbands with a cheerful drink and neat children, lined up to kiss daddy after a hard day. I was also thinking about how commercial products are branded -- Joy, for instance, for dishwashing liquid and the Odyssey, for a minivan. I knew that the logo "Loads of Hope" was probably for a charity, but I didn't google it and find out. I also thought that given the context of my own often morose and depressed state of mind, it was just damn funny in an if only sort of way.

In fact, I now know what the charity is all about, thanks to you, my ANONYMOUS commenters (I know that's not a real word, either), who, with the exception of the person who signed with the letter "A" (I know who you are!), felt compelled to take me to task.

Here's the thing, Anonymous Commenters: if you read my blog regularly, you probably know that I have a sharp, sometimes caustic tongue, but you probably also know that I wouldn't be making fun of people who have been in a catastrophe, nor am I some kind of bumbling idiot, (a.k.a Trent Lott, who applauded Strom Thurmond's efforts to fight desegregation much to his detriment as a Senator).

I maintain that commercial advertisements are often incredibly goofy, no matter what they advertise.  And while I applaud Tide's efforts to come to the aid of the victims of Katrina, I also know that Tide is essentially a product of a multi-national corporation interested in making vast sums of money and also just happens to be a product that pollutes the water and might be, just a tiny bit, in danger of perhaps losing its status as the premier clothes-washing detergent as more environmentally-conscious companies figure out more sophisticated ways to sell their own products.

But I digress. I confess to feeling a tad irritated when I read those comments this morning. I wondered why people register themselves as Anonymous and only pop up when they have something negative to say. I have decided to remove that option from my blog because, frankly, it drives me nuts. I love a good argument but I also like knowing that the person who disagrees with me and has a point to make isn't afraid of attaching his or her name or some sort of signifier to that point.

Now I'm going to do a load of Seventh Generation.

Respectfully,
Elizabeth