What would qualify as a satisfactory result in the following scenario? …

Let’s say I promised to give you $20,000. You are good and basically deserving person and you really do need the money. You are thankful, of course, for my money and so you tell people about the generous gift. You tell people what you are going to do with the generous gift, the new hot tub and the boat and the bathroom renovation.

Keep in mind that this is a pledge, not a promise or a contractual obligation. I don’t have to pay you the money. You cannot take me to court if I don’t pay the money. It’s me being philanthropic and you being grateful, and geez, isn’t the world a lovely place?

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I wanted to pass along a note that was not necessarily intended to be passed along. It came from New York Times reporter John Branch. It’s an email he sent after I forwarded him the previous blog post about the Fresno Bee sports department moving to the other end of the building and our former desk being abandoned.

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A little housekeeping on a Tuesday afternoon …

- The first in a series of outdoors columns is over at the Fresno Bee sports blog, complete with photos and distracting rants about hot sauce and pregnant women. Read that here. The first in what will hopefully be a long and non-lethal blog series, was a day trip to a trail in Kings Canyon National Park.

- I’m beyond irritated that I didn’t tell you about this sooner, but a television channel called Investigation Discovery had a recent show that I should have been on, and I’m not even kidding. Investigation Discovery is a relatively new network, a subsidiary of the Discovery Channel, and it has a show on Friday evenings called “Call 911.” Last Friday’s episode featured the story of Philip Schuth. I think I can say with relative certainty, that I am the media’s leading expert on Philip Schuth. Heck, I might be humanity’s leading expert on Philip Schuth, because the guy doesn’t have many friends.

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This will be a sad post for a few people. The desk is retired. It might end up being a Favrian retirement, but for now it looks permanent.

When I got to work Thursday, this is what my desk looked like …

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So many things to catch you up on here. First off, I’m starting a new series about the outdoors*, which I haven’t come up a name for yet, but we’re getting there. Then there’s the San Diego Marathon, which I didn’t officially run this weekend. There’s the Fresno State baseball team, which officially ended its run this weekend. Also, I’m considering an entire blog on the new Mentos gum that is both exhilarating and disappointing. In that order.

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