gerisullivan | Match It For Pratchett

It's steam engine time. No, not the fanzine; that Steam Engine Time comes in Initial Caps. This steam engine is the 1-day-old fannish campaign to match the million dollars Terry Pratchett is contributing to Alzheimer's research.

fastfwd came up with the idea.

akicif gets the credit for being the first to post the brilliant campaign name. As you can see from this post, there are already two logos.

Terry's donation is to Alzheimer's Research Trust in the UK. While the organization does accept online donations from outside the UK, I followed debgeisler's lead and donated in Terry's honor to the Alzheimer's Association here in the US.

There's more info information about the campaign at AnonymousClaire, especially

fastfwd's initial post suggesting the campaign. And, yes, you can already buy the T-shirt, bid on the first edition of a limited, out-of-print book, or, if your pockets are especially deep, there's always The Luggage. (Well, okay, it's a one-off replica. I hesitate to consider how deep one's pockets would have to be if it was real rather than fictional...and up for bid.)

While my donation was formally tagged in honor of Terry, I also did it in the memory of Walt Willis, Joe Haskell (

fredcritter's dad), Robert Lichtman's parents, John D. Berry's mother, and

kip_w's mother, too. And I did it in the hope that it will help lead to a memorable, memory-filled future for all.