As I mentioned last week, I had a cunning plan is to delve into the murky depths of wikipedia using the random page link. Six clicks, six pages, find something interesting to talk about.
Out of this week’s six, this one struck a chord. A slightly… grisly chord.
The page in question is about Andrew St.John, an American actor, who has been in various flavours of CSI, including CSI:NY, my favourite.
I remember CSI:NY starting on Five over here back in… 2005. In February of that year, I got a letter in the post. More of a package, really.
The envelope proclaimed itself to include ‘graphic crime scene photos’. Inside the envelope was a cardboard folder, containing several newpaper clippings about a serial killer in New York. Also a photocopied email, which looked as if it had been sent to me. Photos, of the sort you see in CSI, of bloodstained shoes, a bullet case and a crime scene. A plastic baggie containing a hair sample and a fabric sample.
It was *all* personalised, so that the victims’ names were the same as mine. The autopsy report sheet had my name on it. The newspaper clippings, which looked fairly authentic, had my name in them, circled in pen. Apparently there’s a serial killer looking for people called David Graham…
I was enormously impressed by the effort put into this little pack, which was, of course, promo stuff for the new CSI show. I was also fairly sure that this would offend and upset someone of a more delicate sensibility, which it did!.
I wonder if I still have it?
The other five random pages, for those interested:
- the Internet Marketing Conference
- Qarabulaq, a village in the Gobustan Rayon of Azerbaidjan
- Noah Ernest Dorsey, an American physicist, known for his contributions to measurement technology who published a widely used book covering this emerging field, including specifications of his own bodily injuries from interactions with radium and radon.
- Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, a peer-reviewed academic journal in the field of archaeology
- the Qionglai Mountains, a mountain range in the Sichuan Province of China
espresso coco 
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