Her insistence grew, even as our editorial interest did not. Some years after her correspondence began, she hit upon the solution of enclosing checks made out in the amount of a full-page ad.

Now, our little independent bimonthly had infamously cheap ads, because we only sold them to independent cultural producers who didn’t make much money. To my mind, B. S. was exactly the kind of advertiser we should welcome. One of her submitted ads began—in another self-evident preamble—“I took out this ad, because I am having problems getting my voice heard.” This was, after all, the kind of voice our magazine aimed to support. Plus, she wasn’t even pitching a product: she couldn’t later complain that taking out that ad hadn’t brought in any new business. For her it was a sound investment; simultaneously, it compromised none of our editorial principles.