CafePress gets a run for its money

If there weren't cats all over the front of this Web site, I may have gotten a little more excited. But the rev share model is pretty cool.

GreetingCardUniverse says you'll see up to 50 cents per card. Considering overhead and the startup costs for new artists (ahem!) this may be a good way to get going for some ... I wonder what the fine print says.

Flirt

Maybe Flirt Keys are the new "Check yes or no" note to pass in class/the bar.

If you can't get enough courage up, liquid or otherwise, to approach someone in a bar, work, the library -- wherever -- and strike up a conversation, maybe you should just find a better wingman.

Will AG come out?

American Greetings looks like they will go big with promoting thier newest venture -- a line with Ellen DeGeneres.

I like Ellen. She's funny. She makes commercials with animals. She has a beautiful girlfriend and they seem very happy together. She also has a very strong female appeal -- her daytime show is so popular and seems to have gotten her past the fallout of her comedy series, which basically ended when she came out. Which leads me to thinking -- will she and her "team" target the lesbian market with these cards? There's one things Hallmark doesn't seem to touch with its new "edgy" line, and that is gay relationships.

Will AG be the first "big box" greeting card firm to cross the line? Looks like for now the focus is on the Big 4: "birthdays, friendship, thank you and encouragement."

There are no Hallmark cards for abortions

If you know a woman who has made this decision, you can show that you support her with an e-card. The service is offered by Exhale, a non-profit group that provides post-abortion counseling services. The cards are simple and all are offered in both English and Spanish.

What is probably most surprising is where I found the AP story: Fox News. A pro-choice DME working quietly in their midst, perhaps. One can only hope.

The card box

A lot of people have these. Mine used to be shoeboxes under my bed. Filled with letters and greeting cards from holidays and birthdays. Then Mike got a set of copper pots from W/S and I got to keep the wooden crate they came in. Now that's full and I have been shoving the cards/letters I get on top of it -- under my desk -- for 2 years.

I am moving soon, and I'm sure I'll be going through that box -- and the many other containers all over this apartment that have filled up with recipes, story ideas, published works, books, condo docs ... everything a writer girl needs. And there will be reading. And remembering.

Unlike this woman, writing in the San Fran Chronicle about how she has lost touch with many of the friends whose memories she rediscovered in her card box, I have retained most of mine. But I haven't had kids, or moved a bunch of times, or even changed jobs in the past 5 years. When I vacate this spot, for a sunny place of my own a few miles down the road, I will leave behind lots of things -- but many of the memories I will carry out with me in a box from Mauviel.

Uncooked

Doreen sent me a link to this kind-of-freaky & complicated card company's Web site, and I fell in love with it. Right down to the cricket sounds and bizarre animation.

All of the samples are in Flash so I can't direct link, but check out the one for Father's Day.

Luckily, I don't have that angst as my father did -- and continues to -- take me fishing. A lot.