Wordsmoker

A number of years ago the American Beef Council or some purveyor of fine meats used the saying “Give the Gift of Meat” as a  holiday sales campaign slogan.   Those of us with somewhat juvenile senses of humor thought that was incredibly funny.

Today there are still some businesses that use the slogan without trying to be intentionally comedic.  Many of these ad campaigns come from Australia, where it is well-known that the inhabitants are generally free of the affliction of irony.

(By the way, when searching for images for this slogan you might want to turn “safe search” on.  Or not.  Whatever.)

You also can go to the fossil farms website and find the following ad:

Now if you are like me, there is something funny about the phrase “Exotic Meat Package Specials.”   And giving an Exotic Meat Package as a gift?   Well that’s just freakin’ hilarious. 

I bring this up as a way of introducing the topic of giving.

There are many ways to show your support for our beloved little Wordsmoker community.    Just reading, writing and commenting are far and away the most important.  Wordsmoker mainly exists because people who generally don’t have much to give in the way of financial resources are willing to contribute in ways that are far more important.  They give their time and wit and commitment.  They give their writing:  and every writer knows that no matter how slight the text may be, writing is never easy and sometimes the writing is painful.   So if you do nothing else, just keep doing what you are already doing, because that is what makes this place succeed.

That said, here are three more ways to support this site:

#1 The first one is free and easy.  Look in the upper right corner of your window and make sure that you do not have AdBlock on.

The ABP Button should be Green:

Not Red.

If you need to change the settings just open the drop-down menu using the little arrow on the right.

#2 The second way to support the site is to donate.  For those of you who are not familiar with our little community, we all contribute our writing for free. This includes our fine editor who puts a shitload of time and effort and expertise into keeping this little experiment going.     No one is making any profit out of this.  But the ad support and contributions do help our editor pay for the technological support that we need, including equipment.

If you can spare a bit of change (and these days you very well may not be able to) then try to remember to put a few bucks in the tip jar every now and then.

Just for fun I have come up with suggested donations based on ones level of un/under-employment:

$ USD £ GBP
$8.00            £5.00          unemployed
$12.00           £7.50          student
$16.00           £10.00        creative underclass
$20.00          £12.50         teacher (untenured/adjunct)
$24.00          £15.00         non-union/non-profit
$32.00 +       £20.00 +    lucky

Wordsmokers may very well wish to change the amounts and categories if these do not seem at all reasonable.   Please share your ideas in the comments below.

#3. Frankly, if the ads and contributions were to make our editor rich — RICH like Richie Rich (aka Alan) — I think that would be fabulous and no one would deserve to be free of poverty more than he.   However, I know he is not the only one amongst our humble community who is struggling financially.

So our undying gratitude and affection and the occasional (and tastefully posed)  photographs of titties are all he really asks for.

And really, isn’t love the greatest gift of all?

Besides meat, that is.