Did anyone else think it kind of creepy that on the McSweeney's homepage, Rebecca has no pupils and her eyes look eerily...Fake, somehow? Just kind of wondering...

Meghan

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2000

Answers

Maybe they tried to correct for flash-bulb red-eye.

-- Anonymous, April 06, 2000

Hmmmmm...Beth seemed to think the McSweeney's takeover was an April Fool's joke- but between this (http://www.salon.com/tech/log/2000/03/28/mcsweeneys/index.html) and Suck (for the sixth, which I can't quite link to at the moment), it's sounding more confusing as to whether it's a spoof or not. It is possibly legitimate?

-- Anonymous, April 07, 2000

I was just reading a newspaper article from 1999 that stated that there were two McSweeney's websites, and one had nothing to do with the other. The McSweeney website that is Egger's is .net, not .com, or else it is the other way around, I forget which.

-- Anonymous, April 07, 2000

But as of the other day, both the .com and the .net were showing the same thing. Was that the joke?

-- Anonymous, April 07, 2000

There's an answer of sorts at http://www.mcsweeneys.net/letter.html. Apparently they decided to "merge the content" of the two sites. At this point, I'm getting the feeling that it's a big ol' prank, and the McSweeney family either doesn't really exist or has been co-opted into the whole gag. For one thing, it seems unlikely that McSweeney's would be having problems with funding for their rather uncomplicated website, especially with the publicity generated by AHTOSG (which I'm guessing translated to higher sales for their paper version). If you didn't see their last issue, it consisted of about a dozen high- quality, color chapbooks (is that the right word?) in a well- constructed box. If their cash-flow problems were so dire that they couldn't afford a webmaster, I'm guessing they wouldn't be spending so much more money on presentation.

Also, this is starting to sound reminiscent of some of the Might gags described in AHTOSG. And maybe I'm projecting here, but the letter at the above URL feels a bit contrived. Too many emoticons and exclamation marks, maybe.

-- Anonymous, April 07, 2000

Have you all gone mad? Although I try to avoid the overly hip / obsessed with irony McSweeneys as a point of honor, there is no question in my mind that this McSweeney Family thing is a big-ass publicity stunt.

Remember that back in the day, Dave Eggers made a name for himself by informing the world of the untimely demise of Adam Rich.

How could anyone take these shenanigans seriously. And furthermore - who cares?

-- Anonymous, April 07, 2000

Does anyone remember the McSweeneys.com (family not mag) site a year ago. I was looking for McSweeneys.net and made an honest mistake of going to the dot com. At the top of the page they had a "you might be looking for the this magazine" link and at the bottom a snide remark about nasty/profane e-mail and "just you try and get my password again" threat.

If the dot com site is in on the joke, it is a joke with a very long set up.

-- Anonymous, April 07, 2000

I don't know, this magazine article was from a long time ago and it mentioned very seriously that you should not get confused between the two McSweeney's sites. So you're right, it would be a very long set-up to a kind of dumb prank. I have no idea why I even care. I just really liked the book, and was interested in getting a little more of this guy Eggers.

-- Anonymous, April 07, 2000

It just doesn't make sense to me that McSweeney's would be taken over and turned into a very cheesy family website. And when I went to the site and read the letters they've gotten... well, it seemed even more like a joke to me.

-- Anonymous, April 07, 2000

I figured it was a publicity stunt too, but it's sure dragging on. Which combined with the Suck, etc. articles I found make me wonder a little if there's something legit. Probably not, and it's not like I'm that impressed with either McSweeney's- but it's very odd.

-- Anonymous, April 07, 2000

Well, whatever. All I know is that the guy standing next to Wendy in her picture is a total asshole; I was at the Tower of London a couple months ago, and this guy had had his picture taken with about 20 people, and I was poised to ask to have a photo taken with him when he screamed, 'NO MORE PHOTOS, PLEASE! THIS IS NOT MY JOB, PEOPLE!' Uh, whatever, dude.

Also, Wing Chun of hissyfit.com sent me a free copy of the all- pamphlet issue, so I care dick about the website. But if it's a hoax, it's a pretty lame one.

-- Anonymous, April 08, 2000

Of course it's a hoax! I just finished the Eggers book, and it's obvious that Dave Eggers has a predilection for such hoaxes (i.e., the Adam Rich thing).

I also wonder if this McSweeney family aren't relatives of his: on page 256 of AHWOSG, Eggers divulges that his grandfather's last name was McSweeney, which would make Gerry McSweeney possibly his uncle? He also says in the book that the McSweeney relatives live in Milton, Mass, and the McSweeney family page mentions a number of Eastern Mass. landmarks.

-- Anonymous, April 08, 2000