Well, There's My Good Deed for the Decade

SO. Do I have some extraordinarily exciting news for y'all today! I am absolutely beyond excited for this one, and that's saying something!

I want you to take a very, very close look at this screenshot. (I screenshotted it because I was unsure as to whether or not the original page would still be like this when I published this post.)

Do you see anything fishy about this particular page? Does anything stand out at you, or does everything seem to be in its proper place?

Let me tell you: everything is not in its proper place. There's a teensy-tiny typographical error, something that people probably read a thousand times a day and yet they don't even realize it.

In the sidebar, underneath the heading "Subscribe & Save...," there's a word, second from the bottom line, that says "FREE table access!" 

That should be "FREE tablet access!"

I wondered if anybody at mental_floss had even noticed this little error. It's something that you could easily miss if you're not looking for it, and I seriously doubted anybody'd had the guts to email them about this before.

So I shot them a little email. It wasn't anything special; I thought they should know about the error. I added a little humor to the email (because that's a good way to get noticed; plus, the magazine itself is quite snarky, and I love it because of that), apologized if they'd already noticed this error, and signed off. I certainly didn't expect to get anything back, especially not the same day.

Lo and behold, I did:

The Editor-in-Chief of mental_floss thanked me for what I did, personally. (THIS IS SO NOT AN AUTOMATIC REPLY!) Then he offered me a reward: a t-shirt for my troubles. (He told me to go pick one out from the mental_floss store.)

Oh, my troubles. My troubles began when they offered to let me pick a t-shirt. It would've been a little less stressful on me had they just offered me one of their literary shirts and been done with it. But nothing's ever that easy. (And no, I'm not complaining. I'm bemoaning the quality of their t-shirts, because it's a terrible job to attempt to pick just one!)

I went through the t-shirts like a madwoman, attempting to figure out which one I would like to have.

There were the obvious choices, of course:

The English Major t-shirt, a classic by itself.

Spell Czech. This one would've been ironic.

The Grammar Police: Also ironic.

But I decided, "No, I don't want anything quite as cliché as these little things. I want something for ME, not something that proves that I did them a favor." So I searched a little more. And I searched, and I searched, and I searched.

And then I found it.

This is a t-shirt that my friend Kellie (remember her, the author?) had talked about designing when we were in Driver's Ed in tenth grade. The mental_floss store has had this t-shirt for a while, but still: it brought up so many memories from tenth grade (not a good year all together, but there were good parts) and I knew this was the shirt that I would like to have. It just made sense. (Plus, it makes me giggle.)

Once my shirt comes in the mail, I'll add it to the weekly freebie round-up, and give y'all a picture of me in it (not looking forward to that, I must say...but I can't wait to take pictures in this shirt!!). 

By the way, if you've never heard of MENTAL_FLOSS, then I urge you, GO CHECK 'EM OUT. They have amazing articles on their website, and even more entertaining articles in their print magazine. I only picked up a copy in the school library senior year because I was bored, and it was something to read. It opened my eyes to a world of humorous, non-fictional, interesting articles. It was like nothing I'd ever read before. (Although I swear one of the editors came to a school of mine at some point or other, but I can't remember. It was either Berry Middle School or Wiesbaden American Middle School, but I can't recall. And it sucks.)

If you're looking for something that will not only kill time, but will also teach you something you never knew before, go check out mental_floss. I have it in my bookmarks bar, so it's always handy. I visit at least once a day. Where else would you learn about Real-Life Vampire Crimes, Unique Drinking Flasks, Geeky Bras, or an entire series on the World War I centennial? Nowhere. (But if you do, let me know. mental_floss will always be my number-one choice, though!)

This may be the best magazine ever invented. (And one that I, as a broke college student, will have to scrape up the money to subscribe to. I have enough money, but after buying this KHAAAAAAN!!! shirt, I'll have to start saving up again.)

What on earth are y'all still doing here? GET OUT THERE AND GO CHECK OUT MENTAL_FLOSS! You'll thank me. I know you will! Geeky and entertaining! Woo!

What's your favorite mental_floss article? What t-shirt would you have picked? Would you have had the guts to email the editor-in-chief of one of your favorite magazines and tell them about their error? Let's have a conversation in the comments!