Victor D. Infante returns to his occasional column, "How to Succeed As A Failing Writer" with an aptly named installment: Long Time Quiet Now: A brief break in the silence. Go read!

This is mostly for anyone who might have sent me baby clothes...

I regularly read a blog written by Mel who runs a non-profit that provides doula services and bags of clothes to poor women in South Africa. I am planning on sending her a package of used baby clothes - stuff that Frisco has now outgrown. However, much of that stuff was very kindly sent to me by buffistas. I just want to be sure that no one has a problem with me sending their clothes on to South Africa. (I did get a few things that were requested to be returned when we are done with them. I am, of course, not sending those things to SA.)

Anyway, please e me if you would like anything back. I'll be mailing the package on Wednesday, I think.

Does everyone know that the cover of this week's Newsweek has an offer from Target for a reusable shopping bag. Using the cover of the magazine as a mailer, you can send in your plastic Target bags in for a coupon for one of Target's reusable bags.

One offer per household.

SoCal-istas:

We are in the fight of our lives and urgently need every person reading this to volunteer for just one day over the next two weeks. The Equality for All campaign needs 1,000 volunteers in the next two weeks to stop the ballot initiative that would change the state constitution to prohibit marriage for same-sex couples for generations.

Proponents of this initiative are paying people for each signature they collect and reports are coming in from all over the state about the misleading tactics and outright lies these paid gatherers are using to get people to sign their petitions. That is why over 2,000 volunteers with the Equality for All campaign are talking to Californians from Eureka to San Diego and throughout the Central Valley, telling the truth about this initiative.

Join Equality For All’s Rapid Response Teams TODAY! Clearly, these efforts are having an impact. Here’s what proponents of the initiative are saying about Equality For All’s campaign:

“We are facing a major obstacle that could derail our effort to protect marriage…Our opponents have launched a counterattack to disrupt the petition drive and keep the Marriage Amendment from qualifying for the ballot….This is slowing down our daily signature totals”—ProtectMarriage.com email, April 7.

We can’t let up now and we need your help more than ever in these last critical weeks before their deadline to submit signatures to the counties. We need you to help tell the truth about what this amendment means for millions of California families.

Please join Equality For All’s Rapid Response Teams and they will contact you within 24 hours to sign up for one of the shifts listed below. Volunteers are needed every day. If you don’t live in one of these areas, please drive to the closest office. Bring your friends and work as a team! If you can’t volunteer yourself, please forward this email to 5 of your friends.

Riverside:

10:00 am 2:30 pm and 1:00 pm 5:30 pm

San Bernardino:

10:00 am 2:30 pm and 1:00 pm 5:30 pm

Burbank:

9:30 am 2:30 pm and 1:00 pm 6:00 pm

Pasadena:

9:30 am 2:30 pm and 1:00 pm 6:00 pm

Orange County:

10:00 am 2:00 pm and 2:00 pm 6:00 pm

We can have the proponents of this discriminatory and destructive amendment on the run. But we simply don’t have enough people on the ground in key areas, which is why your help is critical right now. Please sign up today to help—we don’t have much time and we need you now!

Sincerely,

Equality for All Campaign >[link]

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We now have a website for the F2F. The link is also available in the F2F thread.

Information on room reservations is there, as is a ton of stuff to do around Madison, copies of the catering menu, etc.

Those wishing to contribute to the debauchery party fund may PayPal me at:

dinky40 at charter dot net

Hope to see you there!

New teaching blog entry over at my site: Scheduling My Tiny Little Breakdown.

The Spring 2008 issue of The November 3rd Club is now online, featuring poetry, fiction, nonfiction, art and conversation by:

LIZ AHL, LEA ASSENMACHER, NORMAN BALL, SALLY BELLEROSE, TARA BETTS, RICHARD BEBAN, ANTOINETTE BRIM, TONY BROWN, BRIAN DAUTH, STEVE DE FRANCE, DEENA FISHER, SARAH GETTY, GUY LECHARLES GONZALEZ, DAPHNE GOTTLIEB, DEBORAH GRABIEN, JAMEY HECHT, BOB HOEPPNER, JANIS BUTLER HOLM, TRENT MARTIN KIRCHNER, DORIANNE LAUX, JOHN LIEBHARDT, LISA SUHAIR MAJAJ, JACK MCGUANE, MINDY NETTIFEE, JAMIE O’HALLORAN, ALICIA SUSKIN OSTRIKER, RICHARD PATRICK, WILLIE PERDOMO, ELIZABETH ROSS, MICHELLE SALVAIL, ELLEN RITSCHER SACKETT, MICHAEL SCHEIN, LARRY SMITH, MARC SOLOMON, JEREMY TUCKER, GENEVIEVE VAN CLEVE, KEVEN WALTMAN, TONY WILLIAMS and FLORENCE WEINBERGER.

Enjoy, and let me know what you think!

Hey all - just wrote a post about kinetic sculpture races at Travels With Child ( [link] ) - I have Baltimore's, Philadelphia's, Corvalis Oregon's Da Vinci Days, and California's Kinetic Grand Prix listed.

If you know of any others, drop in and leave a comment - I'm sure there are more.

Sincerely,
Fan of the Giant Pink Poodle
& also, Sox

Lightbulbs is now open for the discussion period of a proposal to create a new gaming thread by Miracleman as follows:

I propose the creation of a Gaming Thread (clever title to come later), in which people could discuss games: board, video and tabletop RPG and all attendant news, developments and ancillary subjects thereof.

BSG fans - TODAY they are running the new episode from the top of the hour from 9 am - 4 pm ET.