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Gully is hungry. Please,
won't you take Gully to dinner?
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Gully -- the little man in the eGullet Society logo --
has been with us since the beginning, and has never
asked for so much as a crust of bread. But now,
after five years, Gully can no longer sit (well, stand)
in silence. He wants you to take him to dinner.
Not really, of course. Gully is pretend, and he has a
computer mouse in place of a stomach anyway.
Rather, what we're asking is that you donate the
cost of dinner to the eGullet Society's "Take Gully to
dinner" fund.
Were you planning to head out to dinner tonight?
Stop! The eGullet Society is beginning its winter
fundraising drive to finance its growing eG
Scholarships program and other services. This year,
we're offering five $5,000 culinary arts scholarships.
We're also planning to upgrade our hardware and
software capabilities and expand our online offerings.
And we want to keep basic membership in the eGullet
Society free. All this requires money, yet Gully has
no marketable skills -- he depends entirely on the
generosity of donors like you.
Most of our members and readers owe many
wonderful meals -- in restaurants and at home -- to
information gathered from eG Forums. Likewise,
they've avoided many bad meals. Now we're asking
you to give one meal back.
According to a study by the International Restaurant
Association, the average eGullet Society member
dines out 35 times a week. Well, not really, but you
may be a person who frequently drops several
hundred dollars (or the equivalent) on fine-dining
meals. So tonight, or one night soon, won't you order
pizza instead and take Gully to dinner with the price
of one of those fine meals?
Or perhaps you don't dine out much, but focus your
efforts on home cooking. If so, won't you have a
peanut butter sandwich one night and take Gully to
dinner with the price of one of your finest home-
cooked meals?
And what a great dinner date Gully is! He listens
attentively, he never complains or argues, he always
shares his food and he loves you unconditionally.
Better still, every penny you spend taking him to
dinner is tax deductible to the full extent of United
States law (which means under some circumstances
it may also be deductible in countries like Canada,
which have reciprocity arrangements with the United
States). We'll issue you a 501©(3) tax
receipt.
And that's not all. If you spend $100 or more taking
Gully to dinner before the end of the year, Gully will
reward you with a limited edition eGullet Society
2006 coffee mug. These mugs are not available in
any stores, and they're really nice -- and big, of
course. (If you don't wish to receive a mug and
would instead prefer that 100% of your donation go
to support the eGullet Society, please note this with
your payment.)
Just click one of the options below to make an online
payment and take Gully to dinner. We accept all
major credit cards and PayPal.
$5,350 - Fly Gully and his only amigo, the
mouse, to elBulli for a tasting menu ($5,350 is the
cost of a $5,000 eG Scholarship plus the $350 fee we
pay to the independent administrators)
$1,000 - Take Gully to Alain Ducasse at the
Plaza Athenee in Paris for the white truffle tasting
menu with wine pairings
$500 - Take Gully to an overpriced tourist trap
restaurant and let the sommelier upsell like crazy
$250 - Take Gully to a New York Times four-
star restaurant and only drink tap water
$100 - Cook Gully a really nice dinner featuring
FedExed lobsters
$50 -
Sorry Gully, if I have to order pizza then you have to
settle for pizza too!
Give Gully any
other amount of money to fend for himself
All amounts United States Dollars (USD).
Or, if you'd prefer to send a check, our mailing
address is below (checks are preferred for donations
over $500, so as to save on credit card processing
fees). We can also customize a wide variety of
automatic payment plans for you ($50 a month, $10
a week, etc.). You can just reply to this email or
contact us at href="mailto:giving@eGullet.org">giving@eGullet.org.
And once you've taken Gully to dinner, be sure to post an account of your evening on the How did your dinner with Gully go? topic.
Thanks so much. Gully really appreciates it.
Mailing address (please be sure to include the
suite
number):
"Take Gully to Dinner"
eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters
20 East 93rd Street, Suite #1A
New York, NY 10128
(Gully would like to acknowledge the inspiration of
Bernard Lechowick of Bard College, the originator of
the "Take Bard to dinner" program)
With relish on behalf of Gully,
