Take me to your leaders.

January 17, 2006 8:39 AM

World Correspondence:I have always wanted to properly pull off a project by which I would correspond with each of the 200+ world leaders. I would compliment them on a fine job well done and request a autographed photo of themselves. I'm happy to report that I have finally embarked on this long-awaited project.

Current status: 23 down and counting...
posted by Ljubljana (38 comments total)

I liked this blog the first time I read it... in 1977.

Sorry, I'm just always annoyed that Don Novello doesn't get enough props for establishing this genre.
posted by soyjoy at 8:50 AM on January 17, 2006

They had online blogs in 1977?
posted by DieHipsterDie at 9:05 AM on January 17, 2006

Dunno - me and my brothers sent out letters to various secretaries of state in each of the US states in 1973 or so...
posted by plinth at 9:06 AM on January 17, 2006

I had to put in a little comment on his Finnish "World Leader" being the prime minister and not the president...

Interesteing concept.

But am I the only one that finds his tone of voice more than a little condescending? And he seems quite unwilling to research the letters he receives, instead hoping that his (seemingly pretty nonexistant) reader base answer his simplest questions about language...
posted by slimepuppy at 9:09 AM on January 17, 2006

DieHipsterDie - sorry, I thought people would get the David Spade formulation.... "I liked this movie the first time I saw it... when it was called (etc.)"
posted by soyjoy at 9:12 AM on January 17, 2006

Like a world typography/design tour. Awesome.
posted by Tlogmer at 9:17 AM on January 17, 2006

DieHipsterDie - sorry, I thought people would get the David Spade formulation.... "I liked this movie the first time I saw it... when it was called (etc.)"

I can be a bit slow at times.
posted by DieHipsterDie at 9:19 AM on January 17, 2006

Neato. Thanks!
posted by arcticwoman at 9:34 AM on January 17, 2006

I like how the Finnish Prime Minister's photo showed him very dressed down by world leader / Prime Minister standards.

Socialized flannel for all finns?
posted by chibikeandy at 9:38 AM on January 17, 2006

The project to gather photographs of all the world leaders was a fun project when we started. Looking back now we seem so naive, but how we we to know what it would lead to? There was no SkyNet, no hunter killer teams in the streets. It was an innocent project - we couldn't have dreamed in a thousand years what kind of hornet's nest we were antagonizing. We never meant to end the world.

Neither we nor They had any way to know that the Occupiers' disguise systems were useless when captured on film. Everyone had switched to digital by then; most companies had stopped making film; and all their publicity shots were well staged - so their scheme should have worked well: no-one might ever have caught on. But our little school project required negatives, and we were insistent. When we couldn't get one from our local governor, we just thought he was too busy and that he wouldn't mind us snapping one at his next appearance. At first we were sure the tentacled, oozing horror on our negative was some sort of error, but it didn't take long to discover just how many of our so called "leaders" were Other than human.

Now I'm here, typing away on someone's unsecured WiFi . I hate to think what will happen to this unknown helper when they track down the source of this message, but the word must get out. I'm not sure how much longer I can stay ahead of the Braincrusher Units, and someone must know how this all happened. If we'd just kept quiet, we might have all lived on in blissful ignorance without ever triggering the Invasion, but would it really be better to live on, unaware that we're part of a giant breeding farm? It matters not, the die is cast. I've left a copy of the negatives in the uppermost access shaft of the Transamerica building, and entered the coordinates in the encrypted geocache net. I can only hope someone will find them, I think it's too late for
posted by freebird at 9:41 AM on January 17, 2006

You know, freebird, there are numerous decaffeinated brands that are just as tasty as the real thing.
posted by fet at 9:46 AM on January 17, 2006

I see they've already gotten to fet.
posted by Richard Daly at 9:57 AM on January 17, 2006

I still like Al Franken's letter to conservative leaders better.
posted by mds35 at 10:27 AM on January 17, 2006

What? They're breeding giants now? Crazy stuff!
posted by blue_beetle at 10:50 AM on January 17, 2006

I would compliment them on a fine job well done and request a autographed photo of themselves.

It will suck to have to lie to Bush.
posted by wakko at 10:50 AM on January 17, 2006

The Gabon Exception

That's the movie with Matt Damon, right?

Over the weekend the letter to Palestine was "returned for better address".

That seems to conflict with AskMe.

Plus, if you read all the way down, it's not just world leaders -- he gets an FOIA on himself from the FBI, and writes the NYPD chief for a pistol permit, among other things. Seems to be an official mail fetish more than anything.
posted by dhartung at 10:57 AM on January 17, 2006

As far as World Leaders go, NZ is pretty far up on the "Wow, she's not half bad looking." scale.

Yes, I know, I'm male. Deal with it.
posted by thanotopsis at 11:16 AM on January 17, 2006

Thanotopsis - Wait, what???
posted by Baby_Balrog at 11:35 AM on January 17, 2006

Everyone knows the two hottest female politicians are My Hawt Governess of Michigan a.k.a. Jenny, and that one lady from the Ukraine.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 11:39 AM on January 17, 2006

Someone should see this guy the URL for freetranslation.com.

It's kinda fun to see the pics and letters, but goes without saying that thousands of schoolchildren have done this. I wish I still had my autographed fotos of LBJ & Lady Bird, Adlai Stevenson, et al.
posted by Sassenach at 12:34 PM on January 17, 2006

Yet more proof that the Finnish are just cooler at everything.
posted by mkultra at 1:15 PM on January 17, 2006

Interesting project, but this guy's kind of a schmuck.
posted by sellout at 2:58 PM on January 17, 2006

This is neat. I like seeing all the different envelopes and stationary. Much more interesting than writing to your congressman.
posted by smackfu at 3:41 PM on January 17, 2006

(I wonder if you could cheat at this by just writing to the UN ambassadors.)
posted by smackfu at 3:41 PM on January 17, 2006

"For example were one to mail a letter to London, England the lettter would certainly be forwarded to the postal authorities of the United Kingdom even though England is technically not a country."

What!?!
posted by feelinglistless at 4:09 PM on January 17, 2006

AskMe on that very issue.
posted by smackfu at 4:12 PM on January 17, 2006

freebird wins.
posted by joedan at 10:26 PM on January 17, 2006

Thanatopsis: I am thoroughly baffled by your assertion that we "deal with it". What, exactly is that we are meant to be dealing with? And I second Baby_Balrog's "What?" on the hotness, she appears to be of the Anne Widdecombe school, which is not exactly a good thing, looks wise.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 2:08 AM on January 18, 2006

slimepuppy, it's not just you, the guy's a fool (albeit, a well-intentioned one). I found his rather asinine observations mostly annoying, generally ill-informed and often incorrect. For example, his musing on the abbreviation of "Ph.D." The title stands for "Doctor of Philosophy", hence the abbreviated form, but he makes no attempt to actually understand why this might be the case. He seems content to simply say "Hey look at these wacky foreigners and how they do things over there", which is just crass.
posted by gene_machine at 4:22 AM on January 18, 2006

Hi everyone,

I am the creator of World Correspondence.

I appreciate your comments but I am particularly disturbed that I am being labeled crass and asinine.

Do I really come across that way?
posted by WorldCorrespondence at 6:23 AM on January 18, 2006

Not to me, WorldCorrespondence. I really enjoyed your site. It brought back memories of a class project I had many years ago. To me, it's still kind of a shock that world leaders and their staff actually take the time to reciprocate. Thanks for your site.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 7:44 AM on January 18, 2006

Thanatopsis: I am thoroughly baffled by your assertion that we "deal with it". What, exactly is that we are meant to be dealing with?

That I'm male, and the first thing I default to is measuring a woman's worth by her looks.

And I second Baby_Balrog's "What?" on the hotness

I was clearly referring to her image on the blog, not images found through a GIS. In fact, you'll notice my language specifically didn't use the term "hot", or even my more favorite "hawt". My exact words were: "Wow, she's not half bad looking." So, technically: Better than average.
posted by thanotopsis at 8:52 AM on January 18, 2006

Joel (creator of the site) - allow me to quote an example from your site, taken from the Trinidad and Tobago section:

"What I find interesting is that the photo is dated Decemebr 15th but the letter is dated december 14th. Also the letter sports a presidential stamp bearing the date december 19th while the envelope was actually postmarked on december 23rd (look very closely). Seemingly, from first stage to last it took over a week and a half. What a monumental task it must of been."

Can you see why some people might think you're a little crass? There is no compunction on these people to send you a photo, and yet they still do so, but you seem to believe that the sole function of government is to deal with such (relatively frivolous requests).
posted by gene_machine at 8:58 AM on January 18, 2006

g_m, I think you're inferring cynicism where there is none. I think he's just referring to the bureaucracy of it all.
posted by mkultra at 9:11 AM on January 18, 2006

I was clearly referring to her image on the blog...

Access Denied.
Access control configuration prevents your request from being allowed at this time. Please contact your service provider if you feel this is incorrect.

In the face of the evidence presented by Baby_Balrog, you're on the spot to provide us with something more reliable to counter the appearance that you are jes' plain damn crazy.
posted by soyjoy at 9:29 AM on January 18, 2006

In the face of the evidence presented by Baby_Balrog, you're on the spot to provide us with something more reliable to counter the appearance that you are jes' plain damn crazy.

You could, I don't know, look at the actual blog linked by the OP.

Oh, wait, I'm the crazy one. Forget that.
posted by thanotopsis at 10:38 AM on January 18, 2006

Duly forgotten, crazy boy.
posted by soyjoy at 11:57 AM on January 18, 2006

Do I really come across that way?

Nope, it was fun reading through your site. I even blogrolled it.
posted by deborah at 11:40 PM on January 18, 2006