The real value of munition t-shirts (Re: CJR returned to sender)

K. M. Ellis kelli at zeus.towson.edu
Wed Oct 25 05:54:51 PDT 1995


On Tue, 24 Oct 1995, Timothy C. May wrote:

> I won't belabor the point that the t-shirt is _at best_ comparable to a
> book, which generally needs no CJR (*), and _at worst_ is an illegible,
> confusing "work of art." (I personally am miffed at the imprecision of the
> "This shirt has been declared to be a munition"--or whatever, as I don't
> have one handy to check--and the language of the sales advertisements.)
  <snip>
> 
> No offense intended to all those who think a CJR for a t-shirt is a worthy
> cause, but I think it's a pointless diversion.
> 
  <snip>

I've found that the real value of my shirt is the fact that it's  
a valuable cypherpunk detector device for strangers who have come 
up to me and said,"Wow!  Is that the shirt I've heard so much about.. are 
you really a cypherpunk... hey there nice perl... " etc. etc. etc.  I've 
been approached about it at a Taco Bell, at the movies, and 
at a favorite coffee house of mine (several times, in fact).  One night I 
wore it to a dance club here in Baltimore, and no less than 6 people, all 
of whom I had never met before, approached me about it and wanted to talk 
about cypherpunk issues.  None of them were on the list.

Furthermore, it's an excellent conversation starter among friends and 
acquaintences who don't know anything about crypto or ITAR.  It's an easy
segue into a topic that really needs to be talked about, IMHO (and 
probably in your humble opinion, too).

To me, the price of the shirt is well worth the interesting discussions 
I've had with people I'd never talk to about crypto or at all otherwise.



kelli at zeus.towson.edu                         http://zeus.towson.edu/~kelli/
Diverse Sexual Orientation Coll.Towson State University DSOC at zeus.towson.edu
		"There's a word for people who have 
	     solved the riddle of the opposite sex:  gay."
					-Pateric J.







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