Sculpin

Glenn Greenwald reported last Thursday that the ACLU has lost a major donor who was responsible for 25% of the organization’s budget. This donor, who got caught in the credit crunch, was the ACLU’s largest single source of funding. This on top of the major cuts they took last year due to the economy.

Josh and I used to be ACLU members, but I’d dropped them from the donation list after they sent what seemed like weekly beg letters to our address. I still support their work, though, and this seemed like reason enough to open my wallet.

There’s no good way that I saw to avoid getting on the ACLU’s dead-trees mailing list if you give via the website. But if you call them at 1-888-567-ACLU, they’ll make sure you’re not mailed. The fellow I talked to was charming and helpful as I explained that I did not want to be contacted by anyone at any time for any reason. He was right there with me on that one.

Makes a great Xmas gift! Merry Christmas, Josh! Seriously, if anybody reading this is wondering about a last-minute present for me, I’m not kidding about donations being great Christmas presents. That’s why they’re on my Amazon wishlist.

I don’t quite get it. I like gingerbread houses and one of these days, I swear to myself, I’ll make one just for the minor engineering challenge of it all. But they do confuse me a bit.

I mean, do you actually eat such a thing? It seems to me that by the time you’re ready to eat it, it’s probably gone stale. (I suppose you could pick the gumdrops off, assuming you can pry them loose.) So you’ve just made a celebration of sweetness that you won’t actually eat. That seems a little daft.