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SOTU drinking game, 2008 - 2008-01-27
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2004-02-21 - 4:06 p.m.

a plague has fallen across the land. children run, screaming, holding their ears. adults are crushed with guilt. credit cards are fingered suggestively, then sheathed disconsolately in leathered armor. yes, that's right, friends: it's the fallow season known as the wnyc winter pledge drive.

i'm a faithful listener of the local npr station, wnyc. it kicks ass. i listen a few hours per day. the hosts are like friends. painting in the studio to the honeyed tones of brian lehrer or jonathan schwarz is one of the things i look forward to most in the world. but several times a year our friendship is strained. my informative and compassionate friends are transformed into callow hucksters, begging for cash like cynical suburban kids on haight-ashbury.

what twists the knife even more is the lead-up to the pledge drive. it's promised that if enough people make 'early bird' pledges, the drive can be shortened by a day or two. i faithfully pledge at a moderate level every time they ask me. but i have to slog through the drive just the same.

sometimes i switch over to the other npr station, wnye. but its not the same. and i miss my friends. s suggested i stream the npr broadcast over my internet connection, which gets me the national programming but i miss the local stuff.

please, can't someone find a cure for the public radio pledge drive? call now! end this curse upon the listening populace!