Weird happening of the day

[chrisvenus]

So today I have a letter on my desk that I picked up from the doormat at home before going to work (yesterday in fact). Its stamped on the front and is from the Keble College Development Office. I assume its an invite to some college event or other. I just got around to opening it and inside I find a card (picture of part of keble on the front). oh, strange kind of informal invitation to an event rather than the usual big letter and form.

So I open it and inside it says:

Christopher.

Belated birthday greetings from us all we [something] that you celebrated in style!

[four signatures]

Its just really weird. Why are they sending me a birthday card? Surely they don't do that to everybody do they (err... do I have any more than one Keblite reading this?)

Its just kind of knocked me for six. Maybet hey are buttering me up to hit me for cash soon...


Edit: for those interested in deciphering the card I've used the wonders of camera phones and internets to make available the text of the card: http://the.earth.li/~chris/temp/WholeCard.png

Comments

[jiggery-pokery.livejournal.com]

This Keblite told them to sling their hook in polite, but fairly short, order the first time they came asking me for money and accordingly I am well and truly off their Christmas card list, let alone their birthday card list. I still get the Brick and the Record, though.

[chrisvenus]

I've never shown any sign of giving them money and I think they one time they asked that I particualrly recall I told them to bog off because I was a finalist at the time - I think they got confused by me dropping out for a year. That was amusingly special. :)

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Could the "[something]" be "doubt"? ;-)

[chrisvenus]

Unforutnately not. It looks most like faust but I'm thinking that's probably not right either. :)

[triskellian]

Then it's probably 'trust'.

(I have received at least one birthday card from my old college, but I'm not sure if it was just for the birthday with a zero in it. And there was no attempt at personalisation, although the signature was real IIRC.)

[sea-of-flame.livejournal.com]

Or 'hope'?

[chrisvenus]

Post edited to include card. I think you are probably right and I am impressed that you managed to get there from faust. :)

Also I realised how sad I am that I went to check on the new digital image rather than openignt he card on my desk to see if it looked like trust.

[cultureofdoubt.livejournal.com]

Seems perfectly legible to me. 'we trust that you celebrated in style'

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Four actual signatures - not photocopies? Wow, that reaches whole new levels of...

And "belated" too! They're so committed to pretending to be your friends they even simulate real crapness! ;-)

[chrisvenus]

Real signatures. Different pens too.

it was signed by somebody unintelligible. And Ruth. DB and I think Camilla. reference to the keble website suggests Isla is the one I can't read and the author of the rest of the card.

I wonder if they just write cards once a month and put appropriate belated/early comments on them if necessary...

[chrisvenus]

You can see the signatures for yourself now too. See edit of the post for a real link to a real virtual copy of the card. If demand is sufficient I shall post a picture of the front of the card too. :)

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Woo! Go interweb!

[childofatlantis.livejournal.com]

"expect"?

Maybe they send them out for 30ths?

[chrisvenus]

Yes, as both you and triskellian say it is a "significant" birthday so that might be it. I'll be upset if I dont' get one next year though. I quite like the random college late birthday card. :)

[mi-guida.livejournal.com]

Now you're 30, you must be earning enough to give them some back, so they're pretending to be your friends...

Yay, cynicism about colleges. But you know my views on that one :)

[floralaetifica.livejournal.com]

It's definitely trust. It didn't look even slightly confusing to me! 'Trust that' is a much more academic turn of phrase than 'hope that' - god forbid that they move out of the 1940s. :)

[cardinalsin.livejournal.com]

I agree, it is blatantly trust. Heh, the first time I typed that it came out "tryst", so maybe it isn't as blatant as I thought.

[chrisvenus]

Its the r that did it for me by not looking like any r I've seen before...

[magicalsushi.livejournal.com]

I originally guessed "hear", but after reading the comments here I'm definitely going with "trust". Is it likely that they heard that you celebrated in style though? ;)

[magicalsushi.livejournal.com]

(and for what it's worth, if I saw the word isolated as a captcha, I'd guess "favor", but that doesn't make much sense in context and I'd hope an Oxford college wouldn't use American spellings...)

[cardinalsin.livejournal.com]

I think in that scenario I'd vote "toast".

[magicalsushi.livejournal.com]

Now it's looking like 'tarot' to me. Maybe the cards told them Chris would give them money if they were nice to him?

[zorac.livejournal.com]

I've definitely had a card from them - although I admit that I can't remember whether it was birthday or christmas (but given that they're three days apart, it's a bit of a moot point).

No doubt the money grab will be coming soon :-)