What’s with the poster, you ask?  I’m just doing my part to get you lazy, cheapskate Div IIIs to donate to Hampshire’s Grad Gift Challenge already.  Here’s how it goes:

YOU donate $20.10.  (‘Cause we’re graduating in the year 2010, get it?)

AN ANONYMOUS HAMPSHIRE ALUM matches your donation with $500.00.

Do you see??  Every time a broke-ass college student chips in 20 bucks, they’re REALLY chipping in over FIVE HUNDRED BUCKS.  And what’s more, YOU get to specify where that money goes.  I put mine towards the tuition fund, since it’s thanks to Hampshire’s financial aid that I came here at all.

WHAT’S MORE, if more than 120 Div IIIs donate, Hampshire will receive AN ADDITIONAL $60,000.  So don’t give me none of that “I hate Hampshire” crap.  If YOU ended up here, chances are that other kids like you will end up here in the future.  Why not make it better for them by donating money towards whatever part of Hampshire you thought sucked the least (or the most…)?

PS Hearing Harvey Pekar speak on Wednesday was pretty sweet.  I get really, really shy about seeing comics idols in person but Pekar was (as might be expected) very conversational and down to earth.  He was promoting his new book, The Beats, so he talked a bit about Ginsberg and Kerouac and all those dudes.  He also talked about all the classic stuff you wanna hear from him, like how he met R. Crumb, and what it was like to work on American Splendor, and how he got into those amazing fights with David Letterman.

Somebody in the audience said something about how great it is that Harvey’s comics are so honest, and Harvey said, “If you’re writing about stuff you believe in, it makes you feel really clean.”

I love you, Harvey Pekar.

(I drew this picture of him for his 70th birthday last fall.)