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Date:         Fri, 3 Dec 1999 07:22:57 -0500
Reply-To:     Bulley <gmbulley@BULLEY-HEWLETT.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Bulley <gmbulley@BULLEY-HEWLETT.COM>
Subject:      list secrets revealed! Giant Shell org!!!

It took some sleuthing to figure it out, but I got the bottom of the Vanagon list!!!

After two years of research, and back-tracing of e-mail, I now know The SHOCKING TRUTH!!! The Vanagon list does NOT have 782 distinct members...only TWENTY-FIVE!!!

That's right. The list was set up in 1994 by a smart Minnesota entrepreneur, Corby Arbuckle, to sell Vanagon parts, side tents, engine conversions, and all other VW-related stuff. To elude government intervention once he established a monopoly on the Vanagon after market, he decided to set up a mailing list that featured MULTIPLE "VENDORS"!!! Who would have known?

Arbuckle knew the list would need just enough 'chatter' to make it appealing to the handful of Vanagon owners who actually want to preserve their vans, so he hired two former VW mechanics, and two retired NYC copy writers.

These four people actually create most of the banter you hear and see on the list, splitting their time and responses into 782 distinct 'characters' featured on the list. Each writer has a list of 195 personal vignettes they write for, each with a different personality and e-mail address to make the ruse complete. So the lists most notable voices are simply the imaginations of Mack Gunther, Cam Rollet, Irving Schmertz, and Sara Limm. The 17 different list "vendors", from motor-builders and part sale folks to tent vendors, are all imaginary divisions of Arbuckle's VW empire...order from one, or the other, it's no difference, it is all Arbuckle.

If you go to visit another listee, you are visiting a well-paid actor, supported by plenty of VW 'props' in the yard from Arbuckle's collection. Pretty crafty, huh.

So it is just you, and a couple other real people, and the rest is just me, and Mack, and Cam, and Sara. Happy Friday. :)

Irving Schmertz, Writer www.arbuckleVW.com Bemidji, MN


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