Rattling the cup

     I've written several effective fundraising letters for the Sun-Times. But for some reason, when they came around asking for another recently, I declined. Not in the mood. But the very next day, my attempt to expense a sandwich, tater tots, iced tea and a cake pop in Morton, Illinois, breaking open the pumpkin story, was kicked back. We don't pay for food (the confusion was my fault — I failed to mention that Morton is 150 miles away, and they assumed it was a suburb).
     Suddenly I had an idea for a new fundraising letter, and asked if I could do it after all. This is the result. Alas, they lost a few choice bits, such as Larry Green going through the photo department garbage, demanding to know why rolls of film are being processed with only a few shots exposed (Because if you pop in a fresh roll, and snap the Hindenburg blowing up at Lakehurst, New Jersey, you don't then carry the camera around for a few days while you fill the rest of the roll. You get that first shot in the paper). Nor would they permit mention of the challenge of getting compensated for tips to strippers, while investigating an embezzler who spent his ill-gotten gains at Thee Doll Hose on Kingsbury, even though they tend not to give you a receipt when you stuff a dollar in their g-string. But it does convey the spirit of the thing. Please feel free to give generously.

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Dear Sun-Times reader,
     I like to say about the Sun-Times, “The paper won’t give you a new pencil until you hand in the stub of the old one.”     From the moment of our founding, the Sun-Times has always been the scrappy underdog, doing more with less, trying to scrape the last few morsels of journalistic quality from whatever resources we have to work with.
   Sometimes, we take that thriftiness to absurd lengths. Recently, when I tried to expense a CTA bus ride to Little Village, our accountant demanded my boss write a letter authorizing the expenditure.
      Or just last week, my attempt to expense lunch during a long day downstate talking with farmers was kicked back. I’d been talking with farmers about growing pumpkins - a skill honed over generations - and residents near a pumpkin processing plant about whether the facility made the air in their town smell like their grandmother’s kitchen, or “pumpkin vomit.”
      Food is not part of the story, I was told. It is, I replied, if you don’t want me swooning in a pumpkin field as the shadows lengthen. They paid.
      It’s important to get out into the world. That sometimes costs a little money. 

Metropolitan Museum

     What I’m trying to say is, the money you donate to the Chicago Sun-Times is not taken lightly.

     Every penny is scrutinized. Carefully. Sometimes too carefully. But that’s because we understand that you work hard for your money, and so do we.
     That’s what those dollars are for. Sending reporters out to ask questions, follow stories and bring back something worth knowing.
      Four years ago, the Sun-Times took down its paywall so everyone could read our journalism, whether they could afford to pay for it or not. Keeping that commitment takes resources, and readers willing to help provide them.
      We know that when you donate to the Chicago Sun-Times, you expect to see that money on the page. And you do.
      Please consider making a generous gift to help us keep that journalism available to everyone. And I promise you, from long experience, that it will not be wasted.

Neil Steinberg