Red Cross falls victim to sluggish economy

[dgriffin]

Red Cross falls victim to sluggish economy


"In November looking at our financial statements we were pleasantly surprised and said 'you know we don't seem to be impacted a lot we're still a little on track' then all of a sudden the end of November and December, looking at our statements today we're actually at about 27% down," says Executive Director Andria De Lisle-Heath. (She) spent an unnerving holiday season anxiously eyeing the mail, waiting for gifts and donations that would never come.

www.wktv.com/news/local/38003354.html

I have mixed emotions. The Red Cross has done a yeoman's job of providing relief in many disasters over the years. However, since before Katrina, they have managed to alienate their donor base almost continuously, from the obscene salaries paid their executives to their treatment of volunteers from time to time. (A friend who is an experienced Red Cross on-the-ground volunteer, flew to Texas after this year's hurricane, only to be asked to change plans and immediately drive a truck back to New York State. He refused, and found useful volunteer work with another agency for a few weeks before returning north.) Many amateur radio clubs, similar to those that support the Boilermaker, threatened to pull out of Red Cross activities last year when the organization decided it needed to vet not only its own volunteers, but also those of organizations working with them. They turned the vetting process over to a company that not only asked about criminal records, but also personal financial information, the latter for God knows what reasons. Maybe to sell the information.

I would say that Director De Lisle-Heath may not have her ear to the ground and is missing the tom-toms of grumbling.

[concerned]

I guess they could always ask Steven's- Swans for some many. A shelter for dogs and cats I never understood why. The cats do make for some rather nice lab dissection animals. I always got a kick out of that freeze dried expression on there face.

[frankcor]

Wow, am I glad my cat Lucy climbed down off my lap just before I got to your response, concerned. Now I gotta clear my screen quick.

[Clipper]

That is pretty cold Concerned, LOL. I don't care for cats either, but I don't subscribe to using them for college biology experiments. Freeze dried? What happened to frogs in fermeldahyde? How the hell would one obtain a freeze dried cat? Sounds like something that a hiker might carry in their knapsack to prepare an exotic oriental lunch in the wilderness. A little soy sauce and some bok choy. MMMM!

[dgriffin]

How To Obtain A Freeze Dried Cat

1. Go over to your Aunt Alma's and sit and talk for a spell.
2. When she goes out in the kitchen to make tea, grab her cat.
3. Quickly, but humanely, place cat between inside and outside storm window.
4. Draw drapes.
5 When Aunt Alma comes back with the tea and complains of the darkness,
say that a Jap Zero has been reported flying in the area and all drapes should
be kept closed for 24 hours. Aunt Alma remembers well. She just doesn't
remember 'when' too good.
6. Oh, I forgot. You have a choice. Do it in August if you want a dried cat, or in January for a freezed cat.

[concerned]

can't use formedehyde anymore it causes cancer, like the dead need be bothered with that.
Really the technique for freeze drying is really great( hide the cat, Francor I don't want to cause any emotional harm to little Lucy and besides my psychiatrist isn't taking any more patients) the moisture is sucked right out after doing a really good dissection so the animal is preserved in a really beautiful way. Us Biology people are a special breed. I brought one with my when I taught a Bio class at Mohawk Correctional facility many years ago. I remember one guy got sick as a dog.

Clipper you can buy one from just any Biological supply industry.

[Clipper]

Thanks for the source information Concerned. I like Dave's recipe for a homemade freeze dried cat better. It may work out better for me, and solve a couple of problems at the same time. If only I can catch the "predator cat" that stalks my expensive garden pond fish. Maybe if I freeze dry the pain in the ass cat, my neighbor will keep it at home and admire it as it sits on his coffee table. No more food, no more litter box, and NO MORE TRYING TO EAT MY KOI's. LOLOL

[dgriffin]

Back in the early '80's, I happened to have my children at the State Museum in Albany, when we evidently took a wrong turn and wound up in a freeze drying lab. This is not fiction. A very nice gentleman was preparing a bird's body for the process and when the kids told him they were budding scientists (he didn't see my eyes roll), he took about 15 minutes to give us a tour of the lab and show us how birds were freeze dried and later mounted for the museum. I didn't know that everything ... guts and all ... remain in a freeze dried mounted bird.

[Clipper]

Yuk! I guess that adds even MORE protein to the oriental trail mix, LOL.

[concerned]

OMG, I just lost my taste for trail mix, every time I eat it I will think of coughing up a fur ball.

Does anyone remember an old TV English TV series that was aired on WCNY. There was one story about an elderly lady who really loved her little cat, it was such an attraction that many an elderly man enjoyed going over to her apartment for a cup of tea and watching as she played with her pussey.