Help These Kids Because I Won't

Playwright Marisela Orta believes in social change, grass roots philanthropy, and the kindness of strangers. She also believes the children are our future—which means she must think that we should teach them well and let them lead the way, and I really could spend this entire entry typing out song lyrics, but, if I were going to spend time typing out anything remotely related to Whintey Houston, then it would instead be the much more entertaining transcript of her interview with Diane Sawyer years ago, in which she asserted: "First of all, let's get one thing straight. Crack is cheap. I make too much money to ever smoke crack. Let's get that straight. Okay? We don't do crack. We don't do that. Crack is whack!" See for yourself:



Anyway, Marisela is trying to get people like you to throw in a little cash (even one dollar would make a big difference—no one ever realizes that) to help a middle school in Queens buy theater books, since they have just added that subject (of which we are all so fond) to the curriculum. Read Marisela's request for help.

I'm far too much of a solipsist to pitch in (at least that's what Brandon keeps calling me), so you have to do it.

I do have a bunch of theater books that I haven't been able to off-load on Amazon, so I'm going to see if I can find a way to mail these books to them. It's much better to give kids these books belonging to an industry that has made me so miserable than to keep them for myself.

—Reporting From Glendale, California