Top Jeep TJ & 2004 Jeep Rubicon - Trail Head

I enjoy finding people's buttons and pressing them frequently. Those I'm around know this about me. Maybe it's that I get bored easily. I like to make people laugh at themselves, or maybe I'm simply not a nice guy. I'm not sneaky about it or anything, and sometimes I find these hot buttons on accident. The other day, I received the following e-mail regarding the June '07 Trail Head about some pile-of-crap Jeep I almost bought. It was humorously (at least I thought it was funny) titled "You have got to be the worst editor, ever!"

"Hello,Enough is enough. If all you want to do is bash the vehicle your magazine is about, you should find another job or at least step down and let someone who will show a little respect take your spot. Your Trail Head article is the first thing people see in the magazine, and all you can do on a consistent basis is say how crappy Jeeps are. It doesn't matter how many or few actual good articles you publish, you still portray the Jeep as a "pile of crap." I canceled my subscription shortly after you started as editor. After a year or so, I figured that you would have taken your job a little more seriously. I guess not. Thanks, John CRAPPA! I'm canceling my subscription again!!!Isaac Coppock"

Even though it's pretty much an unfounded and inaccurate letter (I've been around quite a bit longer than one year-it's more like seven), I guess I get a kick out of Mr. Coppock's enthusiasm. I mean, this particular Jeep was a pile of crap. It's not that all Jeeps are piles, although if I knew it would result in me receiving plenty of unbelievably excited yet borderline fanatical letters, I might say such a thing. Fact is, I'm not happy unless I'm getting plenty of letters from people who think I'm a complete idiot. The best letters usually contain exaggerated and overacting phrases like "severe reader complaint" or "extremely unhappy subscriber cancellation." So keep 'em coming.

Here's another e-mail I received. It's funny to me how the conclusions to a seemingly small mistake are almost always to cancel a subscription or to not subscribe at all. Perhaps throwing away a complete car because of a blown trunk-light fuse is actually a reasonable option for some people.

"John,I recently purchased the June '07 issue of Jp and was considering getting a subscription, but when I read the article titled "Top TJ," I started having second thoughts. I own an '04 Rubicon with a five-speed manual, and the article says they changed to the six-speed manual in '04-and-later, which is wrong (to the best of my knowledge). I thought a magazine just dedicated to Jeeps would have more knowledgeable writers. If there is any explanation for this, I would much appreciate the enlightenment. Thank you,Jerry"

It should have said '05-and-later. I hate making technical errors in the pages of Jp Magazine. There are only three of us on staff at Jp, and yep, we make mistakes just like everyone else does. Sorry. If you can't get past a couple mistakes every now and then, you're reading the wrong magazine and you're probably on the wrong planet for that matter. This is Earth; most of us are humans and far from perfect . . . well, except for Christian Hazel, of course. Regardless, I still like reading over-the-top reactionary letters. But I doubt I'll make mistakes on purpose just to get 'em. Maybe this will be a viable option if I get desperate for attention.

Some of you may remember the previous editor of our sister publication Four Wheeler. He was a pretty pompous guy, at least for my tastes. He was also rumored to be a member of the Sierra Club (yep, the very same that loves to shut down wheeling spots). Kind of an unbelievable irony? Anyway, I would often go out of my way just to get a reaction out of him. It was really a lot of fun because he likely thought of me as one of the lowest life forms on the planet. One year, while on his magazine's Ultimate OE 4x4 test, I whipped out my .45-caliber and started plinking cans and plastic bottles. I was bored because he wouldn't really let me testdrive anything.

Apparently, I had a reputation for vehicle destruction (interestingly, about an hour later, I wasn't the one behind the wheel when a $100,000 Hummer H1 ended up on its lid). Anyway, my improvised shooting gallery made him about as comfortable as Britney Spears at a Mensa meeting.

From then on, just to mess with him, I'd ask him if he wanted to go shooting or drink beer with me over the weekend when I'd see him on Fridays. He'd usually just shudder in horror, politely respond "no, thank you" like I was selling crack rocks on a street corner, and hurry off into the elevator. I miss having someone like him in the office. By now, pretty much everyone here expects this kind of redneck behavior from me. Although, we recently had some new hires hit our floor. I think I'll go show them my new quick-draw cowboy gun holster and polished stainless six-shooter. Nothing scares the crap out of a Californian like a gun. Well, that and carbohydrates.-John Cappa

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