I noticed something odd the other day…

Renewal labels from several magazines. Notice anything odd here?

As you know, oddities–the things that don’t quite fit into the normal patterns–often lead to SearchResearch Challenges. So it is today.

I subscribe to several magazines and as happens, they tend to shed subscription forms like those above. You know, as you pick them up, little renewal cards flutter down like snow on the fields of Iowa.

As I was picking up a few magazines the other day, I noticed that a lot of them have addresses in either Harlan or Boone, Iowa. What?

Now I have to admit that I’d never heard of Boone or Harlan, Iowa, so I got curious. And that leads to today’s SRS Challenge.

1. Why are so many magazine subscription renewals sent to Harlan or Boone, IA? Why there?

It just seems like such a random place to send magazine renewal forms. If I read my maps correctly, neither of them are especially near any large cities with a workforce that could handle a (presumed) onslaught of renewal forms.

So… why? How? Whither renewal forms to Iowa?

Don’t get me wrong, Iowa seems like a lovely state, but I have no idea why magazine subscriptions should end up there.

Can you figure it out?

Let all of us know what you did to find out the answer to the Challenge.

Search on!