Well, to the company that does online marketing questionnaires through NYT.com.

To their knowledge, I was born in 1914 and am a female U.S. independent financial advisor who lives in the 90210 zip code. However, I have never heard of most of the major investment companies in the United States, despite the fact I have an exclusively boomer clientele with portfolios in the US$5 million or higher range.

I was relatively modest about my income, claiming to be merely in the US$150,000 to $199,999 range. Frankly, I think I'm doing pretty good to still be working at my age. :)

Why lie like a rug?

I can think of no better answer than because these people pissed me off mightily.

I ponied up US$49.95 for the TimesSelect package, which allows me access to columnists and 100 archived articles per month (getting the Sunday Times alone through my Globe and Mail subscription would cost $20 per month). One would think that would isolate one from irritants like having to make a stopover at a marketing questionnaire page every third clickthrough.

Maybe it actually makes me more of a target.

In any event, I thought maybe if I finally fill out one of these and was completely absurdist about it, they would figure it out and never bother me again.

We shall see if my instincts are correct.

Update

They weren't. The very next clickthrough, I got hit with exactly the same quiz! Agghh!!!!