Dear Lindsay,

As one of donors to the 1st Annual Alice Day Charity Campaign (that's what you called it, even if you are now having doubts about future efforts!), I would like to thank you for your part in its organisation. I think you acted entirely honourably, and did all you could to achieve the intended aims. I don't think anybody could have done any better. So I don't blame you at all for the less than satisfactory outcome.

I also sent an e-mail to Todd, at the new e-mail address he recently posted, early on Friday morning. I tried to persuade him to wait until he'd talked to all of the donors before sending the money anywhere. Since I didn't get a reply, I don't know if my e-mail got to him. Then again, just 13 hours later, he posted " What the hell is wrong with Brits?   364245.htm  ", in which he complains that British people have "no concept of diplomacy (to say the least) or no sensitivity to others". So perhaps he got it and just didn't like it. Either way, it seems not to have had any useful effect. I suppose I just have to resign myself to the fact that I'll never know what has happened to my money.

Although this is no fault of yours, I think I was quite naive in that I sent off my money without fully thinking out the possibilities of what might happen to it. I think that, if I were to donate to a similar campaign in future, I would have to see a much more definite plan of where the money was going to be sent, and what all the contingency plans were, before I actually sent any money.

I do hope that there will be similar campaigns in the future, though, and I still have every confidence in your ability to organise them.

Mr. Crab