To the certain someone who wrote to Denzel on Sept. 14, if you're out there, my response to your e-mail got bounced back to me. Let me know if you've got a new or different address.

Second, I finally decided who to give money to in the wake of the WTC/Pentagon attacks. It was a tough choice. I know that the American Red Cross helps in disasters all across the world and always needs as much money as they can get. I already made a fairly substantial donation to them earlier this year when there was that enormous India earthquake in January. But right now the ARC probably needs donations of trucks to tote the massive amount of cash and checks they're receiving. They're okay for now. They'll need my money again later.

A lot of focus has been on helping the families of firefighters and police officers. I thought about that, too.

But I finally decided to send my check to the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation, which acquires (often from shelters) and trains search and rescue dogs, and matches them up with firefighter handlers, who they also train. It seems like an organization that could use some cash flow and where the potential for future benefit is high. You can read an article about the founder here in Good Dog Magazine. These websites are no showplaces, but as far as I can tell, it's all legit.

I'm not urging anyone to give money to this specific organization. Feel free to check it out, though, 'cause I think it's really cool. Dogs with jobs just rock.

And if I didn't give 'til it hurt, I certainly gave 'til it stung like petting a saddleback caterpillar. The good news is, they probably won't sell my name to 500 other charities. Too bad they don't do that return address label thing like the March of Dimes does. I could use some of those.

And one last thing:

While we're talking about charities, I'm afraid non-Sept. 11-related charity organizations are going to see some lean times in the wake of all this. I'm hoping folks haven't gotten caught in the emotional tide of all this to the extent that their pockets are empty when other worthy causes come a-knocking.

I try to pick my charities pretty carefully these days. That's how I manage to be able to turn some folks down. There's an old Dykes to Watch Out For strip where Mo is sitting on her living room floor with a humongous stack of solicitations from worthy causes, and she's writing a check for $1.14 to each one. I loved that one.

Geez. I swear Alison Bechdel used to have a website for DTWOF, but I can't find it.