Thanksgiving Thank-you's for Military

One of my local radio stations, Q-100, is trying to gather more than 375,000 thank-you letters to be delivered to overseas military personnel during Thanksgiving. In an effort to hit the target (no pun intended) the mission has been expanded beyond Atlanta. Here's the details:

Each letter should be heartfelt, handwritten, original, and free of any political statements. The purpose of the letter is to express thanks to the military personnel serving the United States. We reserve the right to eliminate those messages that are political in nature and that do not reflect a positive message in the spirit of Thanksgiving. Those letters will be destroyed.

All letters must be on 8.5 X 11 paper or smaller. Do not use glue, tape, staples, cardboard, glitter or otherwise attach anything to the paper. Decorate using crayons, pencil, etc. Use both side if you like, but use one page per letter only. Do not send cards or photographs. Feel free to include your mailing and email address, if you like and you may get a response. Individual letters should not be sealed in envelopes.

Do not send anything except letters. We cannot accept donations of any kind, and they should not be included or attached to letters..

You can mail your letters (individually or in bundles of 50) to:

The Bert Show's Big Thank You
3070 Windward Plaza, Suite F 350
Alpharetta, GA 30005

If you're in Atlanta, you can drop off letters to any Taco Mac location.

Again for more information, check out Q-100's website here: http://www.allthehitsq100.com/bertshow/BigThankYou/index.asp

Say What?!

After my signing yesterday, I decided to take my sister, niece, and a friend to see "Why Did I Get Married?!". I won't name the theater except to say that it was close to where I signed. I wanted to see it opening weekend because I think it's important for Hollywood to know that people will go to see good (black) films that aren't about gangsters or aliens or cops. It was packed, which was nice.

However, before the movie started, an employee came in and did the spiel about cell phones, cameras, talking and babies. Is this a new thing? I don't recall getting the speech before Transformers. At first, I thought it was good, a nice reinforcement of the reel that plays later. Then I realized what movie I was seeing and what the majority makeup of the audience was, and I got steamed.

I mean, if I go to see "Elizabeth: the Golden Age", or "We Own the Night" or "Michael Clayton" at this particular theater, will a theater employee come in and give the same speech? Somehow I doubt it.

It felt a little like the salesclerk in the movie telling these four professional women in fur coats that cash isn't kept in the store.

And yes, I will be writing a letter to the theater company. I'm past the point of just "taking it" when I'm spending my money. Because silence may be golden, but black people know the power of green, and I won't be going to that theater again.

Like Free?

Some random tidbits from around the web today:

Liquid Story Binder XE is available for free today only at http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/

Here's the blurb from the website:

Liquid Story Binder XE is a uniquely designed word processor for professional and aspiring authors, poets, and novelists. Writing software for those who require the editing ability of a commercial text editor as well as a document tracking system.

It is for those who want the freedom to create, outline and revise but are tired of losing track of their work.

Liquid Story Binder features: Multi-Window Display, Spell Checking, Thesaurus, Reference Notes, Timelines, Story Boards, Plot Outlines, Dossiers, Audio Recorder, Image Gallery, Reader, Manuscript Formatting, Time and Word Count Tracking, Chapter and Book Backups, Paragraph and Punctuation Cleaning, Toolbars, Templates, Portable Drive Install, Universal Search, Repetition Visualizer, External Editing, Project Goals, Playlists.

Also, if you're interested in winning $1500 to cover your expenses for RWA San Francisco, check this out!

***PERMISSION TO FORWARD GRANTED***

Valley Forge Romance Writers
Present

The 1st Annual VFRW

Writer's Rafflemania!

Benefits the
Sheila A. Conway Memorial Fund

The Prize
$ 1,500.00
To Defray Your Costs For.
-2008 RWA Nat'l Conference Fee
Held In San Francisco, CA
July 30 - August 2, 2008

-4 Nights Hotel Accommodations
-Roundtrip Air To San Francisco

Rules and entry information at www.VFRW.com

Snow Job

In what has to be one of the biggest WTF moments in history, the AJC reported that Coca Cola and Stone Mountain Park were going ahead with their plans to create a Winter Wonderland, complete with SNOW, in the park, located in Stone Mountain, GA. They started making snow yesterday in order to have a good two feet of the white stuff on the ground by November 10th.

We had a high of EIGHTY DEGREES yesterday, and they were making SNOW. By using a contraption that uses 38 gallons of water a minute for 12 to 18 hours a day making snow fater than Mother Nature can melt it, in order to make a 400-foot long ice slide. While there are lakes in the park that are used to water the golf courses, the park decided to use municipal water (i.e., DeKalb County) in order to make really white snow.

In case you didn't know, north Georgia is suffering one of the worst droughts on record. Yesterday, our Governor, Sonny Perdue, issued a proclamation asking Georgians to take shorter showers to help preserve the water supply. There is no outside watering, no car washing. Yet Stone Mountain was using the same water the governor was asking people to conserve.

The public relations manager of the park seemed a bit flippant at worse, or Pollyanna at best. "We've already sold tickets, and we can't just stop," she said. "That would be like a water park just deciding to turn off the faucets."

You mean, like Six Flags voluntarily shutting down Splash Waterfalls and Thunder River last week because of the statewide watering ban?

This was truly ironic in light of the fact that Coke made a big Corporate Pledge earlier this year to be more responsible with water.

In June, Coca-Cola announced a $20 million commitment to the World Wildlife Fund "to help conserve seven of the world's most important freshwater river basins, support more efficient water management in its operations and global supply chain, and reduce the company's carbon footprint."

Like I said, W. T. F.

Apparently all the emails from consumers to Coke, Stone Mountain Park, and the Governor's office made a dent, because the Park announced that they were ceasing operations.

Now excuse me, I need to go wash my undies.