Privacy, anyone?

The good news is that I have my first article in N magazine! I think Nicky bumped me to the top of the mailing list this time because she was expecting the magazines back from the printers yesterday. I received mine in the mail today. Thanks Nicky!

Overall, it's great and they did my writing and pictures justice. I do have some problems with it though. First, my name is spelled wrong in one place, but that happens a lot. (Even Wild Bill Hickok's guns were engraved with the misspelling. Yes we're related.) Second, you'll notice that I never said "Wisconsin", because I was unsure how the DNR would take it that I'm freehiking in new places. I left the title up to TNS, and they decided to specify what state I was hiking in. No biggie. Third, they removed my joke about running around with a white-tail during deer hunting season. C'mon...it was funny! Fourth, they dumbed down my "tom" joke -- the word "turkey" was added since people might not know that a tom is a male turkey. Again, no biggie, but it doesn't read as smoothly.

Last, the biggie, you'll note that I removed the cell phone number from the article text. Among the pictures I delivered to them was a picture of the sign, with the phone number on it. And what picture do they include? Do you think people will call a phone number by a picture with an attractive female? I'm curious how many calls she's going to get.

What makes this worse is that it's a business line for Amanda's "second job" as a Passion Parties consultant. Think Tupperware, but with romance products instead. This probably isn't the image that TNS wants to project, but they probably shouldn't include random phone numbers either. The lesson is: edit out personal information from pictures. We're both guilty. I'll have more commentary on her business in a later post, but the short story is that we know exactly where the line is drawn. We're true naturists. Her business is just a business. The conflicting topics don't mix.

So if you'd like to book a party around Southwest Wisconsin, grab the latest N and give her a call!

As an addendum for the Wisconsin people, one additional tool that I love is the DNR WebView. Wisconsin is the only state that I know of that has a tool like this, which is why I didn't mention it. The tool points out every tiny piece of public land, among many other features.

If anyone wants to go for a hike in our mystery spot, let me know. I was thinking about forming a small freehiking club for the area if there's interest. There are many other places that seem safe enough to freehike, and there's a lot of trails that could use trimming during the summer months.