Courtesy of commenter Mary G bringing this to everyone’s attention:
Joe lives near the Air Force base where my boyfriend is stationed. I've never met Joe, but my partner and I are arranging a huge group of military guys to go surprise Joe with a salute and happy birthday next weekend. Please consider sending Joe a card! #ThursdayThoughts pic.twitter.com/FMgLls6nmp
— Kendally Brown (@kendallybrown) February 21, 2019
Here’s the full picture of Joe holding his poster:
You all know what to do!
Open thread!
SiubhanDuinne
I’m in! Card in the mail tomorrow morning!
Adam L Silverman
@SiubhanDuinne: Thanks. I’ve already pinged some of the general officers who came through for the last one.
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: Are you one of those people who have spare cards on hand for birthday related emergencies?
Steeplejack
For those who are Twitter-phobic or whose ad blocker blocks the picture, here’s the vet’s address:
SiubhanDuinne
@Omnes Omnibus:
I am, yes.
ETA: Not just birthdays, but pretty much every life event.
MomSense
@SiubhanDuinne:
And blank cards, too.
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: @MomSense: People like you confuse me.
debbie
I still haven’t found a card for the last birthday boy. Target does not have a single birthday card that isn’t specific, like for an uncle, cousin, etc.
waratah
Will be sending a card. He has a lovely smile.
He lives three and half hours drive from me.
Luciamia
Definitely!
Leto
Done. I have some friends who are stationed in Texas who will be thrilled to learn they’re being voluntold for a great opportunity :)
chopper
pretty good looking for a hundo.
Pogonip
@debbie: Just get a nice blank card with a pretty picture on the front and write your birthday wishes inside.
Son of Pogonip and I are sending a card each so as to get Mr. Cuba 2 cards closer to his goal, rather than one we both signed.
dr. bloor
Damn, Joe looks like he’s good for another hundred.
Adam L Silverman
@debbie: Go to the pet store. They usually have cards that are blank on the inside with a cute dog or cat on the outside.
SiubhanDuinne
@MomSense:
Of course!
TaMara (HFG)
@Adam L Silverman: You know that last guy that you requested cards for is still going through the bins of cards he received, right. ❤
satby
I’m in. I also have stashes of cards for every occasion, including blank ones. Hoping he and the other older gent get lots of cards.
And speaking of sending cards, Tom Steyer is starting a postcard writing campaign to have people demand Congress start an impeachment proceeding. Sign up and you get 25 postcards. He must have paid attention to our own MazeDancer’s stellar work with Postcard Patriots!
Adam L Silverman
@TaMara (HFG): I hope the shock didn’t do him in!
satby
@debbie: a blank card with handwritten wishes will be treasured because it’s that little bit more effort.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Omnes Omnibus: Blank cards with a nice photo/drawing or an interesting design can be used for any “emergency” occasion, simply by writing the appropriate note inside them. That’s confusing? My apologies – without hostility of course.
As @satby: notes.
Yarrow
@Omnes Omnibus: I get tons of cards from organizations. I’ve got a box filled with blank cards, thank you cards, birthday cards and so forth that were all just sent to me.
@debbie: Really? That’s odd. Did you check all the card sections? There’s usually a funny card section that has birthday cards that are just kind of general. Blank cards work too.
@SiubhanDuinne: Have you had any luck talking to efg yet?
waratah
@debbie: when I read your post I thought that might not be easy to find. I buy my Christmas cards from a local artist so I looked and he has some note cards with his fantastic art on them. Maybe you have an artist near you that does this.
Adam L Silverman
@waratah: Didn’t Jacy have some cards at her store? Or am I remembering the assistance bleg incorrectly.
debbie
@satby:
Yeah, I’ll have to go the blank route. I used to always keep a stockpile of cards, too, but no one really sends them anymore.
debbie
@TaMara (HFG):
He better not be! His birthday isn’t until April.
Ohio Mom
@Omnes Omnibus: I also have a collection of greeting cards ready to go. It’s a rule for middle-aged and older women.
On another note, here is a sweet story. The family of the Covington Catholic student who was first mistakenly doxed as the smirker but who was actually at his older brother’s wedding that weekend, decided to deal with all the hate directed at them by putting themselves in the spotlight for doing good.
They raised $20,000 for an area soup kitchen the student, Michael Hodge, volunteers at (he is planning on becoming a chef).
This would make the newspaper-sueing smirker Family look even worse than they do but that’s impossible.
debbie
@Yarrow:
No, they were all specific. Every friggin’ one.
Yarrow
@debbie: That’s a bad Target! Try a larger supermarket. They might have a good selection.
debbie
@Ohio Mom:
That’s a great story!
Adam L Silverman
Not quite sure what happened here, not sure anyone is, but keep good thoughts!
Ohio Mom
@debbie: I wanted an anodyne blank card for a condolence note last month, and I had the same experience in Target. Trader Joe’s had a passable blank card.
It’s somewhat amazing and ridiculous how specific cards have become: Merry Christmas Grandma, Happy Birthday Godson, Congratulations to My Niece. Would the person receiving the card be unable to understand their relationship to the sender without these hints?
Middlelee
@TaMara (HFG):
I send Recil a card every Monday. Can’t wait for his birthday so I can send one of those.
And I, too, also, have cards on hand for everything. Friends, knowing I love snail mail, started giving me boxes of gorgeous, funny, themed, whatever cards and I had to ask that they please never give me cards again. I won’t live long enough to use them.
Yarrow
@Adam L Silverman: Wonder what’s going on.
Sounds like she’s okay.
Omnes Omnibus
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: @Ohio Mom: I’ve spent most of my life as a single guy. Expectations are not high.
Pogonip
@Adam L Silverman: Who’s Caroline?
Adam L Silverman
@Yarrow: I have no idea.
Adam L Silverman
@Pogonip: She’s a behavioral scientist from Richmond, VA, hence her twitter handle RVAWonk. She currently works as for an online news publication and she does excellent work tracking the alt-right, as well as other issues that need tracking during the current interregnum, on social media.
Yarrow
@debbie: @Ohio Mom: I’ve found that Whole Foods has a good selection of cards, including gorgeous blank cards with photos on them from a local photographer. Might be worth a look if there’s one nearby.
Mike in NC
Would gladly send him a bottle of his favorite libation. You can’t make it to 100 and be a teetotaler.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Ohio Mom: Go to Ace Hardware in Dillonvale (really). They have a spinner back by the post office with a nice selection, including attractive blank ones.
debbie
@Yarrow:
Great suggestion. Thanks.
Yarrow
@debbie: As with most Whole Paycheck things they’re not cheap, but they’re just cards so they shouldn’t completely break the bank. Unlike some of the other items in the store. The $60/pound Copper River salmon last summer was a bit of an eye-opener.
CaseyL
What a terrific idea!
It’s very hard to find good greeting cards anymore, as more of the small stationary shops go out of business. Fortunately, I still have a favorite few I rifle through – though my usual snark-laced greeting card would be really inappropriate for Mr. Cuba!
I’ll try to find a nice scenery card. H’mm. Ocean or mountain? Beach or lake?…decisions, decisions.
It will go out this weekend. Thanks for giving us a good week’s notice!
JanieM
Barnes & Noble stores have cards, including blank ones.
Around where I live (central Maine), you can find nice cards in stores that carry various kinds of locally made stuff. The apple orchard store near me has not just locally grown/produced food items (vegies, fruit, dairy, meat), but also stuff by local craftspeople, including lovely greeting cards.
Yarrow
You can always make your own card. Print out a nice photo on card stock or on paper and glue it to card stock. Cut the card stock to fit whatever envelope you have and there’s your card.
NotMax
@debbie
Crappy Target. The one here has cards (including blank inside) for every possible permutation one might need.
What I don’t understand is who sends the celebratory ones that are downright nasty.
Sidebar: Boy howdy but greeting cards have gotten expensive!
As others have suggested, try a supermarket – or better yet a chain drug store.
TaMara (HFG)
@NotMax: I found a little gift store near here that sells local artist cards for half the price of Hallmark. And they are so much prettier. A lot have local landmarks on them, like aspen groves, mountain peaks, etc.
NotMax
@TaMara <HFG)
Well, Hallmark, I guess, needs the dough in order to crank out all those weepy Christmas movies.
:)
Have noticed for maybe the last decade that any cards which do strike my fancy and end up being purchased are not from Hallmark.
Aleta
@debbie: I bet he’d love a homemade card. Fold a piece of paper in half to fit your envelope. Cut out and glue on some paper hearts, or cut some from wrapping paper or tin foil. Or draw some flowers and hearts. Copy a short poem on the inside. Write a short note about where you live. The words are probably a pleasure —
Lyrebird
@Yarrow: Trader Joe’s cards are ridiculously cheap by comparison, though not as gorgeous as some of the pricey ones at Whole Paycheck, and they (TJs) have far more cheerful ones and fewer snide ones than the grocery store in my limited experience.
Also, @debbie: the post office is another good source for nice cards, higher cost than at TJ’s, but in several very different regions of the US I have found nice, happy, classy cards at the PO.
Bemused senior
I think I will print a picture of my dad standing in front of his P-47 that he flew from England in WWII and use it as a card. Dad would be 98 on July 1st. I wish he were here to talk to but he would be so angry about these NeoNazi fucks it’s probably for the best that he didn’t live this long.
NotMax
@Yarrow
Just goes to show ya. The Whole Foods here doesn’t sell cards at all. Probably needed that space for the second aisle of beers.
Mike J
I used all my stamps sending cards to Craig Shergold.
LeftCoastYankee
Long time lurker, breaking cover with a nit picky observation….
Is his sign supposed to say WWII? 100 would have him born at the end of WWI.
It doesn’t matter as far as he deserves crazy amounts of cards.
Amir Khalid
@LeftCoastYankee:
Mr Cuba, born in 1919, was 22 when the US joined WWII. He’s the right age for a veteran of that war.
Mayim
@JanieM:
Barnes and Noble is a good source, and many independent bookstores have a selection ~ sometimes from local artists.
I’m also in central Maine, and the tourist-oriented shops around this area are fewer than on the coast or in the western hills/lakes area but they also tend to have nice cards. Several of the local farm stores also have cards, although I don’t think the one that has yarn upstairs does :-(
I think there may still be a Hallmark store in the shopping plaza in Augusta near the Barnes and Noble {over in the section by the Home Depot} but I tend to avoid that area when I can ~ too much traffic! (OK, that’s by Maine standards ~ the former Philadelphia resident me has definitely adjusted to local norms on what constitutes traffic….)
At the other end of the scale, some dollar stores have a selection ~ Dollar Tree has cards at 2 for $1. Christmas Tree Shops are a bit more expensive, but the one closest to me sometimes has nice boxed cards.
I have a nice box filled with cards for all occasions. Learned the habit from my mother, whose philosophy was no one objects to getting a nice handwritten note in the mail ;-) I found out at her memorial service that she sent cards to people even in the last month before she died from cancer, when even reading an article in the New Yorker strained her concentration.
tybee
@Bemused senior: hell, even I would like to see a pic of your dad and the thunderbolt.
The Midnight Lurker
Texas is all over this.
debbie
@Aleta:
Throwback to grade school!
Bostonian
I hope he has a nice birthday dinner of cornbread, hog maws, and chitterlings.
BANG BANG
HinTN
Sent
zhena gogolia
I know somebody by that name who’s from Texas. I wonder if they’re related.
I’m in! I enjoyed sending the one to the man in OK.
grumpy realist
Am sending a card. Ladies of the Lake by Kim Poor.