Joining The No Throw List

Greetings,

We are settling in nicely to our Texas (leased) home and despite the fact thar our mail is still not forwarding (a subject for another blog) everything is working out pretty well.  I was able to get most of my bill that pay automatically updated to my new Chase checking account (another subject for yet another blog).  We got a notice in the mail from the Dallas Morning News that they were going to deliver the sunday edition for free for four weeks.  They did not ask my permission, just up and told me they were going to do it.  The first week's issue (despite being in a plastic baggy) was totally unreadable due to heavy rains.  The second free issue arrive this week and we perused the adds for a whole 15 minutes and then promptly put the whole thing in our recycle bin.

While we have 2 more weeks to go for that paper, there is another paper that would keep coming after receiving no warning at all.  Every Saturday afternoon, the McKinney Courier Gazette magically appears on our driveway (or perhaps our lawn [or perhaps the neighbor's lawn]).  From what I can tell, this paper is an excuse to provide us with advertising.  I have a problem with people who just think they can throw things in my yard without asking my permission.

We actually caught the person who throws these papers in people's driveways.  We happened upon a white pick up truck late Saturday afternoon.  Stepping back a bit from the fact that I am upset with this activity, let me say that I was very impressed with the speed and accuracy that this individual demonstrated as they flipped papers out of both the driver and passenger side windows.  I was too far behind them though to get out, get my paper and throw it back at them.

Back in Indiana we had this same problem with the Kokomo Perspective.  I would find this paper somewhere near my mailbox in the (sometimes) tall grass.  Since our mailbox was several hundred feet from our house, the paper was not visible from the front window and sometimes I would not find an issue until I mowed.  Anyway, I would get very upset (as I am want to do at times) when pondering this.  I mean, what right does anyone have to throw things in my yard?  If I did that I could be written up for littering, right?  Usually by the time I got back into the house I was cooled off (an advantage I guess of having a long driveway) but here in McKinney my 20 ft walk from driveway to front door is not enough time so I decided to do somthing about it.

After a bit of searching I found a contact for the parent company (American Community Newspapers) and asked (nicely) how I might stop receiving their paper.  I was quite surprised how quickly I got a response.  I was invited to join what is called the No Throw List just for the asking.  I gave her my address and just like that I should not be getting any more copies of this paper that I did not ask for in the first place.

Something about this whole set up still bothers me though.  Why is the default value = "Yes, throw unwanted, unasked for stuff on my property" and not "No, do not throw..."?  I am pessimistic that the newspaper delivery person in the white truck has the wherewithall to remember where NOT to throw papers.  I will have to keep you posted.  I hope it does not come down to me brining a lawn chair into the driveway on Saturday afternoon and sitting and waiting for them to throw something on my driveway and have me throw it back.

Jon