Orel Family

Well, old Mitch Albom finally pissed me off enough that I fired off a letter. I'll note, before getting to the letter, that Albom is hardly alone in devoting multiple articles to pontificating on the evils of Barry Bonds. Never mind that Bonds just set the all-time record, or that -- 3 years after the implementation of steroid testing -- he is having, by a wide margin, the greatest season ever for a player of his age. Never mind that, in their disgust over a man they don't like and their "I'm shocked!" reaction to various as-yet unproved (and uncharged, in any official sense) allegations, they seem to be unable even to see what happend on the field. Last week, I was subjected to Bob Costas speaking decisively on multiple forums. "Absolutely," he said to Wolf Blitzer on the CNN show "The Situation Room" when Blitzer asked if Bonds used steroids, as if Costas had been right there in the room with Barry. Costas added that there was ...

In late 2005, I established an associates account with amazon, going primarily from my discography page. Any amazon.com sales generated by people navigating to amazon from my site generates commissions, that amazon eventually sends my way. As I noted at that time, anything that comes my way from amazon.com will be turned over to charity, on a quarterly basis, doubled by a match from me. All selected charities will be from the set of charities documented at http://bruce.orel.ws/charities.html. During Q1 2007, a total of 58 items were sold by amazon off links from the site. Total commissions for the quarter were $49.01. With rounding, this quarter's donation+match is $100.00. While I had considered going to a single charity going forward, recent tragic events made the choice of recipient very easy. I have selected Joan Dancy and PALS Support Group as this quarter's recipient. The donation is made in memory of Terry Magovern. PALS is a grassroots organization that hel...