An Economist Would Have Auctioned the Clothes on Ebay. Just Saying

Via If I Ran the Zoo, Jane Espenson:

Jane Espenson: Remember how I was just in Vancouver? Well, instead of checking luggage, I had a box of clothes FedExed up there and then back down here when I left. It avoids the hassles of baggage claim and I totally recommend this plan. When you're ready to head home, you just scoop your unlaundered clothes into a box and ship it off, neat as you please.

Except that they do some sort of operation at the border in which the shipping labels are removed and sometimes switched. Fun!

This means that when a box arrived at my home yesterday, it didn't contain my clothes. It contained someone else's clothes. Luckily, this person was savvier than I about the hazards of international shipping labels, and had included a piece of paper with his name and (business) address. I have the property of a "Mr. R. Starkey." Those of you who know stuff about stuff are now freaking out. A little checking re: the address and the business name has verified: I have Ringo Starr's clothes. Okay, now everyone can freak out. Please notice that according to any system of logic, this makes me the fifth Beatle.

Steps are being taken to fix the problem. Don't worry, I'm not going to keep the clothes. I'm not even going to look at them, in fact, and I'm hoping Ringo is exercising similar restraint when it comes to my (if you recall, unlaundered) items.

So, how is this a writing lesson? Well, doesn't it make you feel a little better about the inciting incident in a lot of comedies?

UPDATE: I just took Ringo's clothes to Ringo's house. Turns out that wasn't a business address after all, but his actual home address. Holy cow. I met his charming British assistant who gave me a signed Ringo photo and was very happy to have the box of clothes, but who did not have my box of clothes. So they're not with Ringo after all. Who knows what other celebrity is pawing through my stuff -- I hope it's Shatner, don't you? Anyway, it's been a fine adventure and Ringo Starr has star-shaped stone inlays in his driveway. Not tacky like it sounds, actually very nice, very tasty.

Comments

[raft]

awesome.

[whoissecretdubai]

Hello,

A humble request...

Do you, by any chance, happen to know who Secret Dubai (the blogger: secretdubai.blogspot.com) is?

http://whoissecretdubai.blogspot.com/

[Maynard Handley]

"It avoids the hassles of baggage claim and I totally recommend this plan."

Hmm. So let's see.
In THEORY this should be a great plan.
In PRACTICE it actually results in one spending a whole lot of extra money to not get the results one hoped for.
So we recommend it based on the theory rather than the actual practice.

Sounds to me like Ms Espenson is a closet American economist.

[bdbd]

very funny. Ringo recently announced that he wasn't going to respond to fan mail and fan requests by mail for photos, autographs etc so he must have thought this a pretty darned clever ruse to get around that!

[Mike Schilling]

Gear!

[Leila Abu-Saba]

I was just thinking of shipping Christmas fruitcake and presents up to Seattle where we plan to spend the holiday. Since we and our hosts all like fruitcake and want it to arrive on time, maybe this is a bad plan.

I don't want to schlep the stuff through security. And you can forget about flying with a laptop. I am going to bring that flash thingie that's the size of a stick of gum. My hosts have more computers than any one household can use and I will just store files on flash.

[christofay]

Except traveling without luggage gets you "profiled" as a one-way ticket which gets you attention by HomelandSecurity.

Also, fruitcake? Isn't that the gift that keeps on being given? What would an economist say about that? Isn't it better used as a doorstop?

[Neal]

.....Except that they do some sort of operation at the border in which the shipping labels are removed and sometimes switched.....
-------

Hmmm, for some reason the picture of Fedex playing label bingo grab-bag at the border isn't credible.

Does she have any idea how many international Fedex shipments there are every day? How much time would be spent in removing those labels? How much memory would be expended in trying to match up the labels and boxes, again.

A nice story, though I suspect she left the original labeling to some other party that was also was responsible for sending R. Starkey's laundry--probably at the hotel. A mixup with the original application of labels in Vancouver. The Fedex story was the original labeler's invention to cover their ass.

[Reb Yudel]

Inflatable fruitcake: http://www.mcphee.com/items/11895.html

[donna]

Wow, great story. Apparently shipping things across borders is a major problem these days. I have a friend who has tried five times to ship me Belgian chocolates and beer from Belgium, no luck on any try. Must be some customs agent having themselves a feast. It's probably a big game, changing around the labels, the bastards.

I hate our government. Can't wait for Jan. 20.

[mistah charley phd]

They say that Ringo was always the nicest Beatle.

[christofay]

Belgium beer is overrated.

Drink American micro-nation.