Yes, Actual People Do Write Those Letters to Parade Magazine

(Author's note: "Fake news" circa 2005.)

A man named Ed Klein leads the team at Parade that answers questions to "Walter Scott's Personality Parade" -- which bills itself as "the most widely read column in the English language."

That's right. There is no Walter Scott; he's a fictional character.

But the questions Walter receives are real, apparently. Novelist-sleuth Tod Goldberg tracked down an actual letter-writer, in fact. And besides, it's fun to read anyway, right?