THIS bit of excremental business was on the FRONT PAGE of my free local paper. OH MY GOD.

<img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

http://www.gazette.net/200520/bethesda/news/275329-1.html

<img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

The headline:

Love notes for that 'other' special someone
New line of greeting cards speaks to couple in affairs

I truly thought I had seen everything, but this may take the cake. AN AFFAIR IS NOT A LOVE STORY!!!

If you would like to send an e-mail about this article, the e-mail address is [email]montgomery@gazette.net.[/email]

If you would like to send a hard-copy letter, the snail mail address is

1200 Quince Orchard Blvd.
Gaithersburg, MD 20878

If you prefer to call and rant, here's the phone number: 301-948-3120

Anything to make a buck these days. Just like on Dr. Phil the other day where they were talking about how all these sites like AshleyMadison.com were popping up everywhere. They are to help and promote cheating and infidelity.

Oh, my heavens. Nothing gets to me like people saying, "This awful thing would happen with or without me, so I may as well take advantage of it." Yech.

The world is what you make of it.

GC

Probably do best to lean on any stores that sell them.

I HOPE the time is NOT right for them.

SS

anyone know which stores carry the "YOU SUCK" CARDS....I WANNA DROP HER A LINE.......

That is truly surreal.

For general info, the Montgomery Gazette is a weekly local rag and was delivered free to me when I lived in Mont. Co. (moved to Arlington Va. last fall). I assume it's delivered free across the county. I think surrounding counties have their own version published by the same company, although I have never seen an Arlington version.

The only time I read it was to read the local kids sports section. Otherwise, it went straight into the recycle bin. I sensed it was desperately always trying to get some respect.

I intend to write to the paper and also to the idiot marketing these cards. If I find an address for her I'll post it here.

Thanks J for making this known.

After thinking about this some more, and always trying to find hidden opportunities, I have an idea to raise all of this up a notch.

The obvious next step.

WAT's Affair Exposure Greeting Cards

Yep. Think of the possibilities!

Right off the bat, I can visualize a slick card with a picture on the front with a guy slumped over a dinner table with a knife in his back.

Inside, the "verse" could say something like, "Guess who's not coming to dinner any longer?" or "Guess who stabbed his friend in the back and is screwing his wife?"

Then there's space to fill in information to reveal the affair and express your desire to keep your family together despite the affair, blah, blah, blah.

There could be one specially for workplace affairs with a picture of a car in a parking lot with steamed up windows. The "verse" could say, "Guess who's taking a dip in the typing pool?"

You get the idea.

Ah, capitalism............

WAT

that's about as "romantic" as..... <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />

I was pretty upset when I read this article too...

But then I thought about it...

The bonehead who wrote this article is just reporting news. Sending him email will just make him feel good that his article has been so widely distributed and created such a stir. I'm sure every 'hit' that this website got today is being recorded and he may very well recieve mounds of praise based on that alone.

The person(s) designing and selling these cards is most likely expecting this exact sort of backlash. I doubt even the most well-written letters of outrage will have little to no effect.

I predict, however, that Karma, down the road, is going to come and bite this woman in the butt big time. With this kind of attitude towards infidelity, it will probably not be long before she gets a good solid taste of it herself.

Not only that, but anyone stupid enough to send (or keep) a card like this is putting some solid evidence out there for a BS to find.

I can think of a million different ways to make money that would be much more successful. What I see here, in this greeting card company is a HUGE puff of capital going up in smoke.

John

That being said... I do have an idea of my own for a card...

(Outside)
You're a lier,
A cheater,
A betrayer,
A scum...

(inside)
But this is true love
And I'm so happy
To be sneaking around
With you.

Er... so... should I submit an application as a writer?

I thought about that, too. 'Course giving cards is not new and evidence like this has always been around, but this would provide evidence that the participants knew they were in an affair instead of one of those ooops, it just happens and it's not an affair because the marriage has been looooooong over thingys.

WAT

Dewt wrote:
*snort*

dang, he's good! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

This reminds me of an article I’ve read a few weeks ago in one of the best selling magazines in our country... <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" /> It was about a book that has been released by an author (can’t remember the name of the author): “How to have your cake and eat it”. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> The magazine gave a short extraction from the book. In the book, the author states how A’s can actually be good for a marriage as long as you don’t get caught. The author even gave advantages of A’s and why he thinks it can be good for a M. The article was very upsetting to me because I know books like that will just encourage people who are already involved in A’s to continue their destructive & selfish behavior and will give them more reason to justify their A’s in their own heads. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

The thing that always cracks me up about affairees is how they romanticize their sleazy affairs. They don't realize that to the rest of the real world, they look about as "romantic" as 2 hawgs rutting in the pig pen. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

<img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />


Now Mel... that's just plain disrespectful...

[/dewt again ducking and running for cover... reconsidering the wisdom in baiting MelodyLane]

<img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

<img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

I guess the old saying here is appropriate....."When you are the only whore in town, you are not ugly."






"the wheels are turning on the last train to Amsterdam"
Ray Wylie Hubbard

There is certainly something to be said for USING this particular marketing gimmick to bolster marriages in some way. And I must admit that a line of cards for EACH member of the affair triangle would be utterly fascinating.

For the Wayward partner, for example, we might have a Jekyll/Hyde card:

Outside:
(Picture of a man with flowers, smiling, well-groomed, etc., with a wife and kids laughing as he comes home.)
Thought Bubble:
"I really really love you,
I really really do,
I'm so glad I married you
And have you to woo."
Caption: This is your mind.

Inside:
(Same man 45 pounds lighter, dishevelled, haggard, distraught.)
Thought bubble: "I want to marry that other woman, too! Oh, no I don't. I want to stay home because I love you. Oh, no I don't. I love you, but I'm not IN love with you! You know? I hate you! Why don't you understand me???"
Caption: This is your mind on infidelity.

The paper did a follow-up article:

Infidelity Follow-Up

Best quote? Possibly from Cathy Gallagher herself:

While those who disagree with the cards are more vocal, Gallagher said she's seen a large response from people who want to buy the cards.

"People who are involved in [affairs] are not going to get on the air and endorse the product because they'll indict themselves," she said.

In other interesting things, I found the web site where the cards themselves are advertised.

Warning: DO NOT GO THERE if your spouse is in the midst of an affair. This is REALLY triggering. And yes, I mean you!

The Secret Lover Collection

Best quote (so far) from the web site:

We will also be ready to manage discreet, online transactions of the cards, beginning in June.

Gee. I think that made me mad.

If you would like to contact them, there is also lots of contact information:

Phone: 301-652-4400
E-mail: Info@secretlovercollection.com

If you write or call them, I would suggest that you give them details of the pain and suffering that occurs on all three sides of the affair triangle, and in the families that are destroyed by it. Don't rant about how it's "wrong" and "bad" because I don't think it will sink in. The thing that might get through more than anything else is a description from the Wayward and Affair Partner points of view of the pain that they feel in the course of these relationships, and how damaging it is to the integrity of those two people.

Interesting, J.

Perhaps the most effective "counterpoint" would come from former WSs > speaking from first hand experience. Probably better than "losing", sourgrapes BSs, huh?

McDonald's is the recipient of a huge civil suit because of too hot coffee spilled in someone's lap while driving.

Think Ms. Gallagher could be sued in a state with an Alienation of Affection statute as an "accessory" to the crime?? A stretch maybe - so was the McD's case.

WAT

Huh. That'd be cool. I have no idea whether it would work or not. But the legal costs associated with fighting such a lawsuit off would certainly add to the overall cost of running such a business.

I'd really like to meet Ms. Gallagher. I'd like to see a line of cards that expresses the depth of emotions -- positive and negative -- in appropriate proportion on all sides of the affair triangle.

And yes, I do think that responses from former WSs and affair partners would be much more effective with Ms. Gallagher than what BSs would have to say.