Federal agents intercepted eleven pounds of marijuana bound for St. Martins Press’s Flatiron headquarters earlier this month, reports The Smoking Gun. The two parcels, addressed to a fictitious St. Martins employee named Karen Wright, were seized at a post office in California after they were sniffed out by a drug detection dog.
A company operator told The Smoking Gun no one by that name works at the company.
Because the Feds did not attempt to smoke out “Karen Wright” with a controlled delivery, the excitement is pretty much over for the moment, except on Twitter, where someone with the handle @KarenWright_SMP has been asking if anyone has seen the day’s mail and soliciting tips for coming up with $70,000 fast. Hypothetically speaking.
Twitter accounts for Penguin and FSG declared St. Martin’s the winner when they pulled out a double pun classic that works as is: Leaves of Grass.
Later, Leaves of Grass author Walt Whitman tweeted, “In my day, a publisher would reject a manuscript that came with anything less than 20 lbs of fine persian hash.”