(no subject)

Good morning everyone, and welcome to Radio Free Monday!

Ways To Give:

Saskia linked to a friend, Glenn Crytzer, who is a guitarist and bandleader in Seattle specializing in arrangements of 1930s jazz and original work in that style. He's recently been badly injured in a car wreck, breaking his shoulder and wrist. As a self employed musician, the expenses of surgery and loss of work are extreme. His professional page is here, and you can donate to help or buy a CD here.

knitchick1979 has two upcoming fundraisers in Chicago for their Relay for Life team:
Monday, May 20th, 8 PM. Hambingo> at Hamburger Mary's. $15 to play all night (3 cards per game, 8-10 games), fabulous prizes every round!
Thursday, May 23rd. Meatheads in Schaumburg. Bring in the flyer at the Facebook link any time during that day and the team gets ten percent of your meal.

the_rainbow_jen linked to Fairness WV, a statewide civil rights advocacy organization dedicated to fair treatment and civil rights for the LGBT community. They recently did a fundraising drive and can always use support.

Fans Helping Fans:

grey_bard is looking for short fanwork submissions for a Marvel 616 minizine. The zine will be published at cost and will have a free DIY print and staple it version online. Any Marvel 616 comic or character welcome!

kinetikatrue and their housemates are looking for a fourth person to replace one of their current roommates, who is leaving at the end of June. They're located in the DC suburbs, and you can read more about the house and its occupants here.

News To Know:

in_the_bottle responded to last week's post about Malaysian voter fraud with more information and context. The entire linkslist is here, but this one seems to be one of the more informative and here is one about the pending investigation.

taerowyn linked to a story unfolding on LJ where community members of davis_square are being named in a libel suit over the content and comments of this post in which they discuss a local news story about the individual now suing them (apparently as part of an anti-cyberbullying campaign). There's no action to be taken here in RFM terms, but I agree with Taerowyn that it's an interesting and relevant story.

Just For Fun:

jonaht linked to a fun little garden-building website for those of us who can't have a real garden.

And this has been Radio Free Monday! Thank you for your time. You can always post items for my attention in comments here (or on any post) or email me at copperbadge at gmail dot com. If you're not sure how to proceed, here is a little more about what I do and how you can help (or ask for help!).

(no subject)

You guys, I did not know we had PIRATES on the great lakes!

This somehow changes everything.

I mean, Dan Seavey sounds like a terrible person, but just knowing he exists has made the Great Lakes region seem a little bit cooler. Why have we spent so many years discussing the wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald* when we could have been talking about how once Dan Seavey was charged with "unauthorized removal of a vessel on which he had once been a seaman"?

* I continually mix Edmund and Zelda up, but to be fair "The Wreck of the Zelda Fitzgerald" is not 100% inaccurate as a descriptor.

Even better: they were tree pirates.

Half-lumberjack, half-swashbuckler, these pirates would illegally clear-cut acres of wilderness that didn't belong to them. From federal lands to private acreage, these pirates would roam the forests and indiscriminately rob wood from anyone who happened to have it. They would then smuggle their booty via the region's many lakes and rivers to turn a profit. Some pirate gangs even went so far as to set up their own illegal sawmills.

I suppose being a Great Lakes pirate isn't as romantic as being a Caribbean one. It's hard to have quite the same kind of adventures when you're in danger of freezing your mizzenmast off half the year.

I have a WHOLE NEW RANGE of pirates from which to choose for this year's Talk Like A Pirate Day. EXCITING.