At the bottom of this page you can click “About” and read About Open Salon. The introduction sets out the vision that lay behind the creation of the site.

. . . It was developed for writers, photographers and artists of any stripe in need of a smart home for their work . . . .

There is another paragraph, equally important, consisting in its entirety of this:

Open Salon is also a place where passionate media lovers can find a new generation of creative voices, and help them discover a wider audience.

Even with that confusing, superfluous comma, the basic thought is clear enough. This site also welcomes readers as well as viewers of photography and partakers of art. That is where I come into the picture. I am an avid reader, a passionate media lover. My own blogging contributions must rightly be viewed as my doodling during breaks from reading your blogs, my primary endeavor. You, on the other hand, are the new generation of creative voices.

I have been considering different ways in which I might better fulfill my role here as reader. One of my concerns for some time now has been rating inflation--"thumb inflation," I call it. Akin to grade inflation it is. I have therefore taken to using the Tippem function to recognize those rare, truly extraordinary blog entries that I encounter now and again. Those reading experiences are easily worth a $10.00 or a $20.00 Tippem. My straightened economic situation requires that my Tippems must in reality be in the $1.00 to $2.00 range. Because of the spirit and sincerity with which they are offered, you who receive them should nonetheless think of my $1.00 and $2.00 Tippems as virtual $10.00 or $20.00 Tippems.

At the same time, however, you should not regard my Tippems, even in those real amounts, as money that you can collect and spend immediately. The reason for this is that I have found it impossible in spite of my best efforts to register with Revolution MoneyExchange in order to make the transfer of funds. I believe the problem arises from that software's paranoid suspicion of Mexican IP addresses. This is a problem that I have encountered many times in many forms. But I do not want to get bogged down here explaining all that to you.

The upshot is that for the time being my Tippems are only “written on the cuff” in records carefully maintained by Open Salon. With this entry I wish to reassure you.

Looking on the bright side, this situation will probably work toward your benefit. The clear implication from many of your blog entries is that some of your have been less than effective at “setting something aside for that rainy day,” as my mother used to put it. That is by no means intended as a criticism. I myself have been the human incarnation of the grasshopper in Aesop's fable, The Grasshopper and the Ant. Now, ipso facto, you will have that corrected for you. You may regard my Tippems as something put away for a rainy day since you are not able to piss away that money immediately.

Others of you are victims. Of course we are all victims in the larger sense, but in this case I am speaking of those who have been the victims of nonfeasance, misfeasance, or malfeasance in the area of finance and financial management by others. The bright side for you is that you may regard your principal in the form of my unpaid Tippems as far more safely invested than whatever pittance is left in your 401K account, your I.R.A., or your pension fund.

I shall stand behind my Tippems. I am good for them. Absolutely. I have never stiffed any individual or institution that did not have it coming. If those of you whose blogs I regularly visit continue to behave here with the decorum that you have displayed to date, your accumulated Tippems from me can in every sense of the phrase be considered hard money. Some of you may even wish to do business with each other using my unpaid Tippems as a currency of exchange. I will be happy to facilitate that by making transfers of my Tippems on the books of Open Salon as you may direct.

It is my firm, current intention that shortly after my next descent into the United States of America, I shall open my Revolution MoneyExchange account. Upon completing that step, I shall then mash one button here in Open Salon directing that all my Tippems be paid in full immediately. I will let you all know when I have done that. The system requires that you accept your Tippems within thirty days or they revert.

While I have no plans to make my next trip north to the land that God specially blessed in anything less than five years, there is also a bright side there. You have plenty of time within which to open your own Revolution MoneyExchange account, which you will need in order to receive the funds. Do not forget to verify your Revolution MoneyExchange card in order more conveniently to spend those funds.

Still more good news for some of you in addition to the 2,000-year-old Good News of Easter Sunday.