I suppose you're wondering why I've gathered you all together today.

So I think we've figured out the answer to the mystery:

Barb @ getupandplay said...
Weird! Strange coincidence, my baby boy Charlie is one of the babies in that issue. I can't think how it got to your inbox though! What a bizarre thing!

Not so bizarre, Barb. No so bizarre at all.

I remember a few months back, Barb mentioned that baby Charlie (who is pretty freaking adorable if pictures are to be believed) was a finalist in some baby contest and urged us all to go vote for him. Being the supportive friend and sucker for cute baby pictures that I am, I obliged. Apparently it was a good thing I did, too, because this cute boy did win second place in his category. Yes, after seeing Barb's comment, I checked my free issue and found the exact picture for which I had voted published right there for all those with free subscriptions to see (my votes for the other two age categories also ended up winning prizes. Do I have great taste in babies or what? And you're welcome, Barb!).

What sealed the deal: as I remembered voting for these kids, I had a vivid flashback to the voting process. Rather than having little radio buttons you could toggle and submit, all of the photos were numbered. In order to vote you had to submit your three choices . . .

BY EMAIL.

(dun dun DUH!)

So I guess I won a prize, too, just for voting. Kind of like this:



So the moral of the day is: if you vote, mysterious things happen to you, culminating in free magazine subscriptions.

Or you might just get a sticker. Whichever.

In any event, I this it's now safe to say . . .

Case closed.


Thanks, Barb, for providing the clue that cracked this case wide open. Give that cute baby of yours a squeeze for me!

Puzzled.

So I have a mystery on my hands.

Yesterday, at 8:04 p.m., I received in my email inbox the following:

We hope you enjoy your free subscription to the Utah Baby Guide.

That was it.

No preamble, no explanation of why I have received a free subscription to the Utah Baby Guide. No indication of how they got my contact information. Not even really an official announcement of my having received a free subscription. An implied announcement, yes, but not an explicit one. No clue as to where this is coming from. Just a free subscription, just like that, and I was left scratching my head trying to figure out why this email was sent to me.

And I must confess that I'm stymied.

I haven't signed up for any mailing lists or free drawings or anything. The email address it was sent to was my personal address, rather than the junk one I give out when I sign up for free things anyway. I haven't been frequenting any baby sites or anything that would have given me this hookup. Back when the second miscarriage happened in July, I unsubscribed from the baby sites so I wouldn't keep getting the weekly emails because it was just too painful at the time. Come to think of it, even those emails went to a different account than this one. (Yeah, yeah, I have more email accounts than a normal person needs or ought to have. Whatcha gonna do?) And nobody has mentioned to me, "Oh, hey, I signed you up for a free subscription to the Utah Baby Guide." (That a friend signed me up is the most likely scenario since after the graphic the email does say that if I have a friend I'd like to give a subscription to I just need to click this link, yadda yadda, but still, if someone did sign me up they didn't mention anything about it.)

I should probably have made it clear from the get-go that I'm not upset about this, just mightily puzzled.

Where did the mystery subscription come from? Are there more on the way? Was this a completely random spam-like thing, and if so, why did my spam filter let this one through but block all the Viagara and discount Rolex ones?

Ah, life's eternal questions have risen once again.

And in the meantime, I guess I'll just wonder about the mystery and read the story about the triplets with the cute photo where they're all wearing ties and crying their eyes out.



And if any of you have any light to shed on this puzzle, please let me know. I love mystery stories, but my favorite part is always at the end when Poirot or Miss Marple or Nick and Nora call everyone in for a dinner party and reveal the solution, beginning with the speech about "I suppose you're wondering why I've gathered you all together today." Love that part! So yeah . . . let me know.