I get a lot of interesting letters in the mail. (To those of you who send me things, I apologize that I so rarely respond. If you want to hear from me, your odds are better — but still not great — on email.)

I got a package recently, however, that really stood out. It came from Ms. M.R. Stewart, who is a proud mother, as well as being grandmother to four pit bulls.

Ms. Stewart has an unusual hobby: clipping newspaper articles of a particular ilk. She sent me xeroxs of her most recent finds. All of these clippings were from The Dallas News, from February 2006 to the present. The articles had two things in common: (1) all of them were stories reporting on crimes, and (2) the perpetrator’s middle name was “Wayne.”

I have to say I was stunned by the number of examples she sent me:

Eric Wayne Kelley — sex charges
Nathan Wayne Green — kidnapping and beating, homicide
Ronald Wayne Spencer, Jr. — triple homicide
David Wayne Rhodes — 10 years for practicing nursing without a license
Larry Wayne King — homicide
Paul Wayne Mitchell — Theft
Michael Wayne Hills — theft
Jeremy Wayne Hopkins — homicide
Garry Wayne Carriker — knowingly having unprotected sex when HIV positive
Bruce Wayne Potts — homicide
Joshua Wayne Jones — assault of officer
Billy Wayne Sinclair — homicide
Billy Wayne Boyer — assault
Billy Wayne Miller — attempted murder and robbery
Kenneth Wayne Downs — sex assault
Jerry Wayne Lucas — attempted homicide
Tony Wayne Swinnie — aggravated assault of grandmother in front of her grandchildren, robbery
Larry Wayne Dacy — home invasion
Richard Wayne Miles — police standoff
Charles Wayne Thomas — homicide

Maybe you could assemble a list this impressive for some other middle name, but I doubt it. Of course, these folks are following the path set for them by the notorious Chicago serial killer John Wayne Gacy, Jr.

(She also collects clippings with middle names that rhyme with Wayne…she sent me 4 DeWaynes, 4 Duanes, and 2 Dwaynes.)

After going through the package, I pulled my two oldest daughters aside (they are six) and told them they were not allowed to ever have a boyfriend with the middle name “Wayne.” Olivia, who is obsessed with a boy named Thomas in her class, is going to check on his middle name tomorrow.

I am pleased to announce that the Freakonomics website is now a part of Federated Media Publishing, a consortium of blogs (including BoingBoing, BuzzMachine, Digg, and GigaOM) founded by John Battelle. This means, among other changes, that our site will now accept advertising. (You may have already spotted a banner for CNBC earlier this week.) We are also planning a redesign, which may or may not be drastic. (Suggestions, btw, are welcome.)

In the meantime, please answer this Federated customer survey if you are willing. It is meant to help them figure out who reads this site, and why.

We do know a little bit about our readers already:

* There are roughly 45,000 of you on a given day.

* Most of you are incredibly kind, wise, and polite. (As for the others, we know where you live.)

* About 84% of you are from the U.S.; after that, you are most likely from Canada, the U.K., or Japan.

* Here is a list of the remaining countries where at least 100 of our daily visitors live: Netherlands, Germany, Australia, Russia, France, Brazil, Italy, Singapore, New Zealand, Finland, Israel, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, India, Portugal, Mexico, Taiwan, Argentina, Norway.

* And here is a list of countries where, according to our hosting company, there is one lone reader of the Freakonomics blog: Bermuda, Cyprus, Guyana, Jordan, Paraguay and … wait for it … Tuvalu.

I didn’t know where Tuvalu was, either. It’s in the western Pacific Ocean, a former British commonwealth composed of nine low coral atolls; the capital is Fongafale, on the island of Funafuti.

Hello and thanks to our lone Tuvaluan reader, and to the rest of you as well.