Hi, Okay, I am wrong...though it is not *quite* as crass as it sounds...at least from their part. It does sound like the direct marketing firm is pretty crass and creepy, though. Kind of like the attorneys who comb hospitals looking for cases (well, maybe that will change with the caps on malpractice suits, right?) or the thieves who read the obituaries and then go to their (former) homes during the funerals (a retired librarian dealt with this issue when her husband died...)... I did have a (somewhat) entertaining meeting with a directmail guy a couple of weeks ago regarding some ideas on doing direct mail to teens and to who we might want to be informed about genealogy programs (two fairly easy target markets for us). He tried, really hard, to get me to think about letting some companies 'underwrite' or advertise in our brochures/catalogs...Had a hard time understanding why we would not do so... I do wish the link to information would be placed on notes (esp when they are sensationalistic [sp?]), though... Marlena in Missouri (scolded last night for not wanting to be starved to death even if I'm not conscious by a hospice nurse--it's not just the 'right' who can be patronizing and make you feel rotten for your beliefs...though the hospice nurse voted for Bush, so go figure...) _http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/29/politics/29donate.html_ (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/29/politics/29donate.html) ? "Mr. McCullough said he was present when Mr. Schindler agreed to the arrangement in a conversation with Phil Sheldon, the co-founder of a conservative online marketing organization, _RightMarch.com_ (http://rightmarch.com/) , who acted as a broker for Response Unlimited. "So the Schindlers do know the details," Mr. McCullough said on Monday. How much attention they paid to the matter is hard to assess, he added. "The Schindlers right now know that their daughter is starving to death, and if I ask about anything else, they say, 'I don't want to hear about it.' " Direct mail and mass e-mailings are ubiquitous fund-raising tools of interest groups on the left as well as the right, and others in the direct-mail business defended the sale of lists like the roster of donors to the Schindlers as a useful way for potential donors to learn of causes that might appeal to them. Pamela Hennessy, an unpaid spokeswoman for the Schindlers, said she was initially appalled when she learned of the list's existence. "It is possibly the most distasteful thing I have ever seen," Ms. Hennessy said. "Everybody is making a buck off of her." Ms. Hennessy, who operates the Schindlers' Web site, _www.terrisfight.org_ (http://www.terrisfight.org/) , said the family had not released any of the names or e-mail addresses gathered there. "Obviously these people are enterprising, and they are taking advantage of this very desperate father," she said." ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html