Everyone asks questions. Most of them are the everyday, "How are you doing?" "What are you studying in school?" or "Where do you work?" Some are the bigger questions, such as "What is love?" or "Is there a God?" Then you get Paul Davidson's questions: "Why do they promote yellow and blue makes green Ziplock bags when colorblind people will never be able to use them?" "Why are Wendy's hamburgers square?" "Would swallowing excessive toothpaste send me to a poison control center?" If you ever wondered about even one of Davidson's questions, then this book is for you. Paul Davidson, TV and film writer for such stations and companies as ABC, USA Networks, VH1 and Dreamworks Television, has come out with a new book and it is hitting the world by storm. His book, called "Consumer Joe: Harassing Corporate America One Letter at a Time" will have you rolling in your seat, whether it is waiting for an appointment, sitting on a plane or spending a quiet night at home.

This hilarious book is filled with letters Davidson wrote under pen name "David Paulson" to such companies as Proctor & Gamble, M&M/Mars, Best Buy, Barnes and Noble, Ben and Jerry's, GAP, eBay, Saturn and Cold Stone Company. The letters make one consider ideas and questions that one never thought to think of before.

Whoever would have thought about asking Southwest Airlines whatever happened to the honey roasted peanuts? Davidson did. He asked, and they responded. Southwest Airlines rotates its peanut selection semi-annually, and they are also apparently trying to cut down on costs, especially since September 11. While they sent him some bags for his next few trips, they encouraged him to bring any goodies he wants on board with him.

Davidson wonders, out-loud and on paper, what SKETCHERS stands for, why lime Skittles were replaced with sour apple, and what would really happen to your overnight package if it, "crashed on a deserted island like in Tom Hanks' movie Cast Away."

The author talks about his book in a very amusing introduction, explaining how these "were questions sparked by America's largest corporations, selling their wares to the American public: fast food, items of personal hygiene, health food, clothing, automobiles, air travel, chocolate covered nuts concealed under a sweet candy shell."
Using his "limited knowledge of the witness relocation program," Davidson cleverly took the "son" from his last name and added it to his first name, creating "David Paulson." This pseudonym not only allowed him to find out answers to his questions inside of his little head, but also to "make damn sure no one could come after me, find me, and slap me silly."

"My goal in it all was to show that no matter the question, no matter the comment, no matter how strange my ideas might have been, America's largest corporations, however gigantic and impersonal they appeared, would embrace my questions with open arms," Davidson writes.
As you read through this book though, you will realize that not all companies made every possible effort to "embrace" his thoughts, ideas and questions, and some of them were downright rude. Some made him wait a lot longer than necessary to respond to his letters. If he wrote them in October and by January he still hadn't gotten a reply, he wrote another letter, telling them how mean they were for not getting back to him. At this point, they replied immediately, apologizing for the delay in their reply, and then provided some interesting information based on what "Paulson" was asking in the original letter.

Some companies had interesting responses to Paul's letters. When he accused Starbucks of using unnecessarily elaborate promotions and for the amount of stores they operated, they said they were sorry to hear that he did not want Starbucks to continue growing. But come on, we all wonder when the next Starbucks will appear in our local area. He also wrote to Wrigley's asking why his JuicyFruit's flavor did not last, and they told him to send his package and a few sticks the next time it happened to find out the cause because they cared about their customers.

We have all wondered some of the more interesting questions in our life, but Paul Davidson actually did something about it and wrote to the companies to find out everything his mind concocted. It is a great book, and as Davidson says, "Sit back. Grab some of that Sleepytime tea. And open your eyes and your soul to the most mind-bending, earth-shattering collection of stunning information you've ever seen. The kind that changes people. The kind that ushers Peace on Earth. Or, you know, the kind that makes some really damn good bathroom reading."