One of my mom's good friends, Bernie Berlin, runs a dog rescue down in Tennessee. She does two things:

1. Picks up dogs from high-kill pounds in the South and drives them to low- or no-kill shelters in the North.

2. Keeps dogs (and cats, turtles, peacocks, and chickens) in her house/yard pens and fosters them until they find permanent homes.

She does this by herself, and finances her animal-rescuing habit by selling art (!). But she'd like to do more.

Thus the pitch: Bernie is in a "charity competition" run by Kevin Bacon's Six Degrees Foundation and Parade Magazine. The competition is to see how many individual donors each charity can get to donate at least $10.00.

The top four charities will get FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS.

It's a lot of bang for your buck. You donate ten dollars and maybe it turns into FIFTY THOUSAND. Like when Mickey was sweeping in "Fantasia."



Bernie has gotten 1995 donations as of right now and is only NINE DONATIONS AWAY from a winning spot.

The contest ends today at noon (PST).

If you don't have ten dollars, or are not into dogs, I still like you, and apologize for littering damportlanders with solicitations. But if you'd like to tithe ten dollars to the puppies of Tennessee, you can do it here.

Bernie is really a fabulous one-woman juggernaut of dog saveration, and if she won this contest it would revolutionize her abilities.

My little brother got hit by a car yesterday while in the crosswalk at 179th and Stark. Luckily the driver was not an asshole or a drunken tweaker. My brother couldn't see him over the car that stopped for him and the driver that struck him couldn't see my brother until he stepped out in front of him. He's ok...just pretty banged up.

I just wanted to remind everyone to be careful in and around crosswalks. I know the way the metro area is set up where there are crosswalks in the middle of streets for some fucking reason. I always slow down when I see one coming up, but some people space it. Don't make me post pictures! Cuz I will!

So, please be careful. Don't put your family through what mine is going through and for god's sake don't put yourself through what the poor guy who hit my bro is going through, either. Survey says: he feels like uber-shit.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/story?id=4215961&page=1

Ralph Nader has formed a presidential exploratory committee, and said in an interview Wednesday that he will launch another presidential bid if he's convinced he can raise enough money to appear on the vast majority of state ballots this fall.

Nader, who ran as an independent candidate in each of the past three presidential elections, told ABCNews.com that he will run in 2008 if he is convinced over the next month that he would be able to raise $10 million over the course of the campaign — and attract enough lawyers willing to work free of charge to get his name on state ballots.

One person showed up two weeks ago, and together we've now topped more than 100 turtles. Just imagine if more people came! Come fold turtles and help keep us from going crazy. I think we ran out of things to talk about with just two of us.

ALSO: I now have printed instructions for the turtle but I need to get them online (and blow them up, but I digress). Those interested in this thing, do any of you have a scanner you could bring on Saturday (if portable) or take the instructions with you from then (if not)? It would be the easiest time to handle it.
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I'm going to send Terry Pratchett a thousand origami turtles, I figure I owe him at least one smile for the ones he's given me. It would be selfish and time-consuming to not let others get in on the action, so here's your chance! Saturday afternoon I'm opening my apartment to anyone who wants to come help. I'll have paper and some sodas, all you need is a pair of hands.

( The info )

In response to previous questions, snacks are welcome, but by no means obligatory. My only request is fairly tidy stuff, not a cake or anything.

(cross-posted to booktards)

We're still looking for a new apartment and this morning called a place out on the far eastside that sounded decent enough. The rent was average ($720ish for a 2 bedroom) and they accepted pets. Then came all the caveats. There's a $400 per pet deposit (a bs policy, imho, but I've heard of it before.) Then there's a $15 per pet per month "pet rent" as well--also a silly policy IMHO but I've heard of this before too. And THEN there's a $25 PER PERSON rent ON TOP of the $720 per month. So a couple and a child would pay $75 per month on top of the rent to live there. Add in 2 cats and a dog and we'd pay $840 per month to live in this average sounding complex waaaay out on the eastside. Alrighty then! Crossed that off the list.

Ridiculous rental policies in Portland are nothing new to me, but this was the first I had heard of a monthly fee per person. Anyone else run into this? Is this even legal? It just seems weird to me.

From experience, I know that posting for advice about anything more controversial than "what do you put in your oatmeal?" has gotten me nothing but snark and hate mail, but... whatever, here goes.


I'm a special ed. teacher at the middle school level. I teach a behavior support classroom. My students have some very VERY sad stories, several have little to no support, supervision or anything resembling it, from their families and rely very heavily on the support and guidance they get from me (and others working in the school). I have a caseload of 10 students, all strapping young lads who are going through growth spurts and constantly hungry! I'm realizing as the year wears on that I am putting myself out there waaaay too far financially to help these kids and now I'm seeking out creative ways to keep my program going and still be able to pay my bills!

I provide my class with healthy snacks and drinks. I buy things like nuts, trail mix, granola bars, bottled water, dried fruit, etc. Sometimes I also have less healthy (but still ok as far as I'm concerned) options like crackers, juice boxes, etc. I'm also not opposed to occasionally rewarding them with a soda or candy, or a pizza or ice cream party. I also provide them with school supplies. I figure I go through a dozen pencils every day, but buying them is far better than struggling over them bringing their own (it's a losing battle). I figure I've spent more than 600 dollars so far, and we are only half way through!

Of course, the district won't pay for the food items. They will pay for the pencils and school supplies and things, but it comes out of my budget to buy other needed items. I'd also love to take my kids on some trips so that we could work on social/behavioral skills in the community. Very little funds are available, and the administration in my building is strictly opposed to kids doing fund raising (totally ridiculous in my opinion)!

Honestly, I was just wondering if any of you lovely and helpful and awesome DamnPortland people would want to donate to my cause- maybe I could attend the next meet up and pick up donations there, or I'd be willing to pick up items from you. Maybe you'd want to sponsor a kid to go on a field trip? Or just donate a bag of almonds or a case of bottled water? Maybe you have some old, but still usable binders, or could throw a pack of pencils, or other school supplies my way? I'd take those too!

Also, if you have any fund raising ideas that don't involve kids selling things, I'd looooooOOoooOOoove to hear them! I'm open to any suggestions.

Right now you might be asking yourself why you'd want to do anything to help those little *#*@(#$ kids, but I'm telling you that once you get past all the foul language the seems to spew out of their mouths in never ending fashion, you realize that they are really sweet, loving, eager to please kids who have never been taught how to survive outside the world of poverty. I've seen so much growth in them over the past few years that it gives me strength to keep going. Yep, it's a hard job, but the more of my heart I put into it, the fewer the days I have to ask myself if it's worth it.