“What they been smokin’?”

“100,000 smackaroos?” I asked.
“What they been smokin’?”
Yrs Trly gives to charity, making me a target for every possible charity buying my address from charities I gave to.
I cut back. I used to give to national charities when I itemized deductions. Better to support cancer research than McDonnell Douglas or Boeing.
Now that I’m retired, entitled to a higher age-based standard deduction, I cut back to only local charities.
I usually get one or two charity solicitations per day — in my mailbox. Who knows how many I get over my phone, which I gave up answering. Only if my caller-ID identifies a caller I know.
Years ago there were three charities I gave $500 per year. One was Railroaders Memorial Museum in Altoona, PA, location of The Mighty Curve, which as a railfan I’ve been to many times.
The others were -a) Houghton College, which I graduated in 1966, and it meant so much to me, and -b) WXXI-FM, the classical-music radio station out of Rochester I regularly listen to.
I prefer classical music, and have WXXI on all the time. WXXI is public radio, partially funded by givers like me.
I cut back since retirement. Railroaders Memorial Museum and Houghton are now $100 per year, and WXXI is now $600 per year as a sustaining member = $50 per month. (I listen all the time; it’s worth it.)
I haven’t been to Horseshoe Curve in years — there are other railfan locations nearby I go to. And Houghton seems to no longer be what it was when I graduated.
As a railfan I supported Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society for restoration and maintenance of Nickel Plate 765, by far the BEST restored steam-locomotive I’ve ever seen. $100.
Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society is part of a large charity organization based in Fort Wayne, IN. Every year before Christmas I got a solicitation from that organization. I could check off Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society.
There it is again in my mailbox, just like clockwork — Christmas is two weeks away.
I opened the solicitation. HOLY MACKEREL! They’re suggesting a $100,000 gift.
It gets crazier and crazier. I know inflation makes a $100 gift puny. First it was $500, then $1,000, then $5,000, then $10,000. What do they think I am, a bottomless pit?
Now $100,000. DING! That rings the bell.
They ain’t gettin’ no $100,000; are they nuts?
I imagine some overpaid charity CEO merrily flaunting the speed-limit in his megabuck Mercedes.