Sweet 16
A thousand more Bollards have been born!
Beginning with this issue, we have increased our print run from 15,000 to 16,000 copies to accommodate growing demand. Future circulation increases are all but certain as more of you discover this magazine. Resurgam!
To celebrate, we’re having a Sweet 16 party on Thursday, May 14, at Empire Dine and Dance (575 Congress St., Portland), featuring two of Portland’s most ass-kicking bands, Metal Feathers and Covered in Bees. There’ll be booze and food and Bollard swag, and admission is free. Plus, it’s Bollard art director The Fuge’s birthday. (Gifts optional; hugs and kisses mandatory, but not from dudes.)
Also new as of this issue: Spring Me!, a collaborative effort by The Bollard and the Animal Refuge League to increase awareness of the fact there are plenty of pets in area shelters available for adoption. We’ll be featuring a new animal companion each month. Keep in mind that the pet featured in any given issue may or may not still be available by the time you visit or call, but there are many others waiting to find a home. Many thanks to photographer Sara Goldenthal for creating this feature, taking the photos and gathering information on each animal.
Clarifications
In last month’s cover story, “A scam of planetary proportions?,” the claim that the Better Business Bureau “has refused to recognize Planet Aid as a charity” was misleading. In fact, the BBB recognizes the fact Planet Aid is a registered charity; it refuses to give Planet Aid its official accreditation because Planet Aid fails to meet three of its Standards for Charity Accountability.
We also stated that Planet Aid’s giving-to-fundraising ratios “have not appreciably improved” of the past several years. The American Institute of Philanthropy (AIP), which gave Planet Aid a failing grade because it spent just 23 percent of its revenues in 2004 on aid programs, reports that the charity spent 42 percent of its revenues on programs in 2007, the latest year for which data is available. However, AIP, like the BBB, expects charities to spend at least 60 percent of the money they take in on charitable work, so Planet Aid still gets an F.
____-up (four letters)
Lastly, profound apologies to all those puzzlers puzzled by last month’s Crossword! grid. We screwed up and printed the March issue’s grid with the April issue’s clues. The correct April grid is here, and can be printed. Be assured this month’s grid and clues match up and that we’ll be checking to ensure they do in the future.
— Chris Busby
