If I may indulge in a little thread creep, I'll insert a tale.

The person, Edmund Fitzgerald, for whom the ship was named, was the president of a big life insurance company. My late father, a writer and editor, chanced to purchase an insurance policy issued by Fitzgerald's company. Of course my father had never heard of Mr. Fitzgerald. Following a reasonable processing period, my father received a letter from the insurance company welcoming him to the “family” and expressing regret that the writer couldn't meet my father in person to extend his welcome. The letter was signed by Edmund Fitzgerald.

Now my Dad had a well developed sense of humor and a natural tendency to regard those too sweetly writen, insincere marketing letters with scorn. He decided to reply in kind to Mr. Fitzgerald and composed a tongue-in-cheek letter using the same sweet insincere tone inviting Mr. Fitzgerald to come and stay a few days in my parents' home so they could really get to know one another.

Well, it turned out Edmund Fitzgerald had a sense of humor too and understood how really preposterous the company's welcome letter was, so he composed his own humorus reply to Dad's letter. So began a regular correspondence that lasted until Mr. Fitzgerald's retirement. They did eventually meet when Fitzgerald happened to be in Des Moines for an insurance convention. He didn't stay at my folk's house but he did take them out to dinner and present them with a photograph of them all together.

After Fitzgerald's retirement, Dad got another silly letter from the new president introducing himself to policy-holders and expressing regret that he couldn't meet each one individually. Naturally Dad took up the challenge and wrote to inform the new president that he was accustomed to a close personal relationship with the company's president and he expected the new guy to honor the tradition. It turned out the new guy enjoyed the humor as well so he and Dad carried on a long correspondance.

Eventually, of course, a president came along cut from the same mold as today's executives, self centered, no fun, no human thought, and put an end to the long chain of personal correspondence. My mother still has Dad's files of these letters, they're a riot to read.

      - Mark