Mystery Magazine Subscriptions: A True Story

Magazines are pretty cool, especially when they are relevant to your life.  This week, I've received three magazines I'm pretty sure I'm NOT subscribed to and well, maybe one of them is relevant to me. All of this is happening about a month after I let my Rolling Stone subscription lapse aka I didn't want it anymore.  I understand the whole obsession with hoarders and I suppose I'm a bit of a magazine hoarder.  However in my new place, I was magazine-less until a few weeks ago.  To be fair, one of the magazines that showed up was addressed to the previous tenant; I'll let that slide.  And I received my alumni mag from WKU; again, it's okay.  I can easily dispose of these two temporary magazines when I want.  But guess what?  I haven't!  I figure having a few alternative reading materials around is a good thing.  I recently acquired a simple bookshelf which I have supplied with books I've read, some I haven't and it's nice to look at.  And although I do have a basket to supply with magazines, after a while, aging magazines become a nuisance.

This week, I discovered an US Weekly in my mailbox and at first I thought it was a mistake.  According to the US Postal Service, it wasn't.  It had MY name and address on it and to top it off, it had a date of when my phantom subscription will expire, in September of 2013?!?  My neuroses automatically began to set it.  Why? and is this Rolling Stone's revenge?  I haven't seen a bill, yet.  Then today, I discover not one, but TWO issues (September and October respectively) of Women's Health.  Are you kidding me?!?  I realize that sometimes when you go to a retail store, the staff will try to get to subscribe to a magazine, but not several.  As far as I know, this has not occurred recently.  Did I miss the, no pun intended, fine print on a recent purchase?  The good news is (maybe) these issues did not list a end of subscription date, whew!!!  At least one of my Facebook friends said the same thing happened to her and she never saw a bill.  Let's hope I get that lucky or I will be buried in a sea of gossip rags.