The May issue of Model Railroader that's what. What is funny is that back in early April there was a thread that i participated in (about how the paper versions of the May issues of MR and Trains seemed to be late) and I mentioned that I had gotten May's Trains magazine but not MR - usually they arrive the same day or just a day apart. Here is the thread
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/287456.aspx
Anyway it never did arrive, but I waited. When the June issue arrived (very close to May 1, so right on schedule) I called Kalmbach's "customer service" number (there are reasons why I put it in quotes). The person I talked to was not convinced that my May issue was late just because I had now received the June issue. I told her that I had been subscribing since 1965 and that while the issues do keep getting earlier (they used to arrive much closer to the month of the issue, which made the April Fools Day joke easier to anticipate) and that issues had been late before but never later than the next month's issue like this was. She said she had to talk to her supervisor on that one because "this happens all the time." Not the best advertisement for subscribing ... After a long wait she told me that it looked like I had a valid argument. She did not promise to send me a May issue but she didn't refuse to either. A very odd experience, although I do find the Texas :"customer service" staff a bit more surly than the old Florida "customer service" staff, but both being far less "service" oriented than the genuine customer service staff that was right there at the Kalmbach HQ.
So I waited some more.
Then the July issue arrived the other day - again close to June 1 so right on time. I was already to call "customer service" again when the May issue arrived. So the two subsequent issues "lapped" the May issue. What is funny (not funny ha-ha" but funny) is that it was almost like the old days. Instead of having just 62 pages of MR to read all at once, i had 124 pages! Seems like old times! Good thing I do not rely on the MR ads to get my advance orders in on time.
No point to this post, just ranting and pouting.
Dave Nelson