The Mother Load

I am extremely proud to present the Mother Load's first Awesome Product of the year: A Year of "Snide Remarks."  Now before you shake your head in puzzlement and say, "I can get that from my kids/coworkers/spouse for free," note the quotation marks.

"Snide Remarks" is the humor column of one of my very favorite writers, one Eric D. Snider.  You may remember Mr. Snider from a post I wrote last year after meeting him at a local Eric D. Snider "Tweet-Up".  He writes movie reviews and other fun, movie related pieces for both Film.com and Cinematical and maintains his own website, where all of his older stuff can be read, and where occasionally, he treats his readers to a funny blog post.

What he doesn't do anymore is write his weekly "Snide Remarks" column, and this, my dear readers, is not okay.  Snide Remarks used to be available to the public each Monday, but circumstances such as rent, food, utilities and other bills no doubt perpetrated by "the Man" have caused Eric to stop writing the column in favor of writing stuff that actually pays him money.  As a freelance writer and editor, I totally understand this mindset.  It's why this blog is updated more often than Sarah...Phenomenally, and why this blog, which brings in less money than my Mahalo and publishing work, sometimes gets set aside in favor of the work that pays more bills.  But this freelancer is also a devoted fan of Mr. Snider's work and wants "Snide Remarks" to be part of her weekly laugh ratio again.

Good news!  Through a site called Kickstarter, Eric has found a way to get "Snide Remarks" back on his site for an entire year.  According to the A Year of "Snide Remarks" Kickstarter page, Eric is willing to write a year's worth of columns if he can raise $5,000 by February 1st.  At this writing, he has raised $3,092 and has 26 days to go, so it's looking pretty good, but it's not fully funded yet.

Readers interested in funding a year of these columns (and if you read even one or two of his past columns, you'll want to help with funding) can go to the Kickstarter site and pledge whatever amount they'd like to get Eric writing "Snide Remarks" again.  Have a dollar left over from your Christmas money from Grandma?  Make a pledge.  Have $20?  Make a pledge.  Have $500? Give Eric some and then send some to me.  (I kid...sort of.)

Here's where it gets really cool.  If you have $100 to pledge, you can become a more special backer of "Snide Remarks".  This amount will give you the right to choose the topic for one of Eric's columns, and an ad of your choice will be run along with the column you support.  Do you think I'm a $100 backer?  Heck, yes, I'm a $100 backer!  Eric's readers (except for the ones who think he can give them the email addresses of actors appearing in the movies he reviews) are intelligent and fun.  Of course, I'd love for some of his readers to become mine (and vice versa, because you guys are pretty darned cool yourselves...it must be said).  If we fund this project, your very own Sarah Clark will have a Mother Load ad running on the column of a writer she wants to grow up to be like.  If you have a blog or a business you'd like to promote, this is a pretty awesome deal.

If you do nothing else, take a look at Eric's site and have some laughs.  If the project gets funded, you'll be able to read his column weekly whether you've helped fund it or not, and you'll laugh every single week.  But if you fund it, you'll get warm fuzzies that will last a year AND laugh every single week.  It's like having a cuddly, cross-eyed cat you can pet and chuckle at without the expense of food or the annoyance of cleaning the litter box.

And seriously...who wouldn't want that?