redditors doodle: wednesday

Until yesterday*, this one was team reddit's favorite, so putting it here in the middle of the week seemed like the highest honor (traffic usually peaks for the week around Wednesday).

ElbridgeGerry creatively doodled this endearing chalkboard alien. Appropriately, Elbridge wanted to support his favorite charity, DonorsChoose.org, which a number of submitters also asked to plug.

DonorsChoose is indeed a splendid charity -- it's a great execution of a clever concept. I've done some shameless promotion of it in the past, ever since Joel Spolsky turned me onto it.

Celebrities are using it, too. The View host, Sherri "world is flat" Shepherd, is herself a donor -- a Chicago public school classroom received a globe and geography kit in her name. (And according to her comment, I'm getting lots of Heaven credits for it. Yay!)

Alas, Mrs. Shepherd did not submit a reddit logo.



*The inquisitive among you are probably wondering "why until yesterday?" The answer to that question will come tomorrow...

Don't get your hopes up for anything too interesting, you'll just be disappointed.

guess who's racking up heaven credits? -- a reply from mrs. sherri shepherd

Wow. I really didn't expect this, but it looks like Mrs. Sherri Shepherd found my blog and took the time to reply to my posts and donation.

Quick recap: After declaring on The View that she wasn't sure if the world was flat, the Internet had a hearty laugh. Coming so soon after the Ms. South Carolina debacle, I knew something had to be done. The solution was obvious: globes in every classroom. Fortunately, there was a DonorsChoose teacher from Mrs. Shepherd's hometown that requested a globe and geography kit for her classroom. The donation was made in Mrs. Shepherd's name and with her contact info.

I included the following note:

Mrs. Shepherd, I felt so guilty watching the clip of you on The View that I was compelled to donate a globe (and geography kit) to your hometown. The world is indeed round. I hope no other school children in Chicago have to grow up thinking otherwise. best wishes, Alexis

The teacher even took the time to write a thank you letter, which Mrs. Shepherd also received.

And I thought that'd be the end of it, until I saw this this comment:

Hi Mr. Ohanian

I didn't know that you'd done this until my 'oh so wonderful' father, after reading all the stuff that's written about me, stumbled upon your blog. Thank you so much for your donation of the globe and geography kit to the school. I'm glad to see that my 'brain farting' moment prompted someone such as yourself to get up and do something positive. You're racking up those Heaven credits! God Bless You and have a great day! Sincerely Sherri Shepherd

But is it really her? My mother always told me to never turn down Heaven credits when they're offered, so maybe it doesn't matter.

I wonder what the exchange rate of Heaven credits to U.S. dollars is these days...

sherri "world is flat" shepherd gets a thank you from a chicago schoolteacher

As part of my commitment to deliver the highest quality of reporting, I wanted to give this update on my Sherri Shepherd project. She was widely mocked after telling the audience of The View that she didn't know if the world was flat -- not only that, she "never thought about it."

In light of Ms. South Carolina's recently solution for helping American schoolchildren find the USA on a map, I knew the real fix for all our educational failings was simple: globes.

So in Sherri Shepherd's name, I donated a globe and "hands-on mapping activities" to her hometown of Chicago through DonorsChoose. They even let me email Mrs. Shepherd with a message:

Dear Mrs. Shepherd,

Mr. Ohanian has funded a proposal at DonorsChoose.org in your honor and wrote you this message:

Mrs. Shepherd, I felt so guilty watching the clip of you on The View that I was compelled to donate a globe (and geography kit) to your hometown. The world is indeed round. I hope no other school children in Chicago have to grow up thinking otherwise. best wishes, Alexis

One of the nice parts of DonorsChoose is that the teachers whose projects you fund will likely email you directly with a brief not of appreciation. It's a nice touch. I just got the CC of what Mrs. Shepherd received:

Dear Mrs. Shepherd,

Thank you so much for funding our classroom with Mapping Our Way To The World! I know that my students will be so excited to receive our new materials and start learning about the world all around them. I hope you will enjoy reading our thank you letters! Thanks again, [redacted]

So far, no response from Sherri Shepherd.