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I Just Received a ‘Boost’ E-Mail…From a U.S. Senator

To call it disappointing is an understatement

Paul Combs
5 min readOct 17, 2024
Photo by Vladimir Solomianyi on Unsplash

If you’ve ever had a story “boosted” on this site (and I sincerely hope you have), you will recognize the subject line of the e-mail they send notifying you: “Congratulations! Your story has been Boosted on Medium.” It’s the first thing I scan my email for every morning after checking to see if Bruce Springsteen has finally noticed the 87 stories I have written about him over the past three years. Hope springs eternal.

I have learned to look for the word “boost” rather than “congratulations” because of the countless e-mails I receive congratulating me on winning a new iPhone, riding mower, ivory statue of the Buddha, or whatever the newest scam of the day is. Clicking on those leads to destruction.

Thus, I was thrilled this morning when, during a quick scan of the 20-plus new emails, my eye caught that magical word: boost. The thrill evaporated like the Dallas Cowboys defense against the Detroit Lions last weekend as soon as I read the entire subject line (“We’re looking to boost this”) and who the sender was: Senator Ted Cruz.

As it turns out, the Senator from Texas was not only not telling me that thousands of people would see my latest article; he was actually asking me for $50.00 to “boost” his…

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Paul Combs
Paul Combs

Written by Paul Combs

Writer, bookseller, would-be roadie for the E Street Band. My ultimate goal is to make books as popular in Texas as high school football...it may take a while.

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