Best selling prolific author Stephen King and his wife Tabitha have donated $12,999 to bring 150 members of the Maine National Guard home for Christmas. King is superstitious about numbers and would not donate the $13,000 he was originally approached about. The Maine troops will eventually deploy to Afghanistan in January of next year. They are currently stationed at Camp Atterbury in Indiana.
According to DC Examiner:
The couple donated $12,999 toward the expenses of the trip. King’s assistant, said that King thought 13 was an unlucky number. “Steve is such a numbers person,” said Julie Eugley in an interview with the Bangor Daily News. “When we were approached for $13,000, he thought that number was a little unlucky. He didn’t want any bad whammies associated with these troops.” Eugley dropped the extra dollar to make the donation an even $13,000.
According to The Digital Journal, the money was solicited by Operation Community Support, a not-for-profit Bangor-based military assistance agency. The Kings’ donation is the largest ever received by the agency, and was given from their personal finances – not their foundation, according to Eugley.
The donation from King, a Maine native, will fund two bus trips for the 150 soldiers.
Long known for his horror novels, novellas and short stories, King was seriously injured himself several years ago when he was run over by a van while out for a walk.
This is very generous. I am now doubly a fan of Stephen King. Might I suggest a post about the radical right’s new ploy to generate hate toward federal employees. This might work out in the Bible Belt, but around here, the latest hate campaign is none too popular. Interesting how many people I know who are so eager to join the circus of denunciation when the target is bankers, or gays, or immigrants. But now that table is turned, and the new target is federal employees, the political expedience is suddenly not worth the hypocrisy.
Stephen King
“People want to know why I do this, why I write such gross stuff.
I like to tell them I have the heart of a small boy…
and keep it in a jar on my desk.”
Stephen King
No one has captured the vernacular of the baby boomer generation better than Stephen King, in my opinion.
Well, as long as the “hate” isn’t directed at trial lawyers, the lunatic lefties shouldn’t mind at all, right?
This I heard a couple of nights ago on one of the trucker radio shows. It seems that elements of the Tennessee National Guard from around Nashville are in training in Mississippi for eventual overseas deployment. They had about $5-6000 set aside to bus them back home for Christmas, but the money somehow “vanished” — not clear how. Anyway, an account has been set up in a Nashville bank to collect donations to bring the warriors home for Christmas. When I heard the broadcast, they were still short about $4000. A call was going out to truckers all over the country to pony up what they can and send it to that bank, even though many truckers have really been hit hard by the economic downturn. I am willing to bet that those warriors do get home for Christmas.
Maybe the Stephen Kings will kick in a little more or maybe Al Gore will since he is from Tennessee. There are lots of rich people in Tennessee. Then again, there is all of Nashville.