I would happily sell cheesecake to raise money for UNHCR. If @neilhimself would read somewhere near me, he would get a free piece of cheesecake, and I would auction off the rest.
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There is some serious Cheesecake Factory hate in this thread. I actually like that place. I eat there probably twice a month, on average. The Bacon Bacon Cheeseburger (no, I didn’t stutter) is … well, it’s bacony. Yes, it’s incredibly unhealthy, but I only eat half and take the rest home. I usually skip the cheesecake. It is very sugary. Although the 30th Anniversary Chocolate Cheesecake takes care of my chocolate cravings for a few months.
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Ha! Vindicated even by someone who likes the Cheescake Factory.
Just to be clear, I can think of no better way to celebrate how amusingly awful the place is than by having one of my favorite authors dramatically read the menu. We CF haters can listen to it as satire and the CF fans can listen to decide what to order. Everybody wins!
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I can’t decide if TCF would be onboard with this, or if they’ll raise copyright issues to try and kill the endeavor. I’m sure some TCF house lawyer somewhere is sharpening his fangs over it, anyway. Have they secured the rights to the text of the Cheesecake Factory menu? Inquiring minds want to know!
No hatred here, just my reality as a a type 1 diabetic and a foodie:
I go for quality over quantity. If can make it better or get it better somewhere else,
I won’t show up again. I took one bite of their cheesecake and put the whole
place on the bottom of my list next to McD’s and Claim Jumper (cake slices the size of
whole cakes)
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I made a contribution, but boy does the processor rake in the fees for this. Crowdrise charged a 2.9% credit card fee, plus another 5.9%, for a total of 8.8%
That seems VERY high, but maybe that’s a going rate.
Regrettably, that seems to be the going rate. For quasi-charitable and crowdfunded innovation, I agree, the cut is steep.
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But there’s a catch – [Gaiman] will only do the reading if $500,000 has been raised for… the United Nations Refugee Agency.
But wait - much more than that has been raised.
Our annual budget rose to …a new annual high of US$ 7.5 billion in 2016.
Oh, that’s not that he means. He means:
will only do the reading if $500,000 has been raised for… the United Nations Refugee Agency, and he gets credit for it.
FTFY. (I love Gaiman, but it’s not all that awesome to take credit for other peoples’ donations. Cf: Matthew 6:1-4.)
The filk band Clam Chowder was once doing a fundraiser concert, and taking requests from the audience. Then this happened.
AudienceMember: Would you sing _____?
BandMember1:… Is that too risque for this audience?
BandMember2:… Hush, this is for charity, we’d sing “Bend Over Greek Sailor” if they paid us enough.
AudienceMember: Hmm. Ok, so how much is “enough”?
And it was agreed that $500 was enough, more money than that was raised, and they’ve been doing it for years.
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I do love that man and his work!
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He wouldn’t be taking credit for the donation funds, but for inspiring the public to make donations that they otherwise might not have made.
While I already give to various charities, the UNHCR has not previously popped up on my radar of charities that I should prioritize. (I’m often overwhelmed by the seemingly-infinite number of humanitarian and other crises out there, and unfortunately this sometimes leads me to ‘tune out’ my awareness of some of them.)
I’ll be making a donation because it’s a worthy cause. This campaign brought it to my attention, so I’m happy to give Sara Benincasa and Neil Gaiman credit for inspiring me to make the donation.
Getting to see a video of Neil Gaiman saying “Skinnylicious® Chicken Pot Pie” is just a bonus.
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I agree, it’s an excellent cause.
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Best cheesecake I have ever had came from a hole-in-the-wall Indian place. It’s actually a nice chaser to the spicier food, too. Yes, it was made in house.
I have never been to a Cheesecake Factory.
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It’s been a few years since I’ve been to CCF, but isn’t half the menu local ads? -almost like a news paper?
So is Gaiman going to read those too?
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You are not missing out. I went once for a work related lunch thing. It wasn’t anything that awesome pretty much a nicer and pricier but not necessarily tastier Applebee’s/TGIFridays/etc, all of which I avoid if at all possible as the Seattle area is full of so many much better places to go.
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Good for her and good for him, but… why that in particular? I’m glad it’s happening, for the charity’s sake, but it seems like kind of a random waste to pick that.
Let me add to the Cheesecake hate- I knew someone who worked for them, and she said they treated their employees horribly. It’s also rumored that the one in my town was built solely so that the franchise owner’s son would have a place to eat for free whenever he was visiting.
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If that were my philosophy, I’d only eat out for BBQ and maybe Chinese (I live in Kansas City - you can’t beat the BBQ here, and I’ve never attempted Chinese cuisine at home). I get it, though. Any health related dietary restrictions limit your options, and CF is not overburdened with healthy options. I used to order off the skinnylicious menu until I really studied it and realized I wasn’t sure I believed their calorie counts, based on the ingredients and portion sizes. So now I just get a side salad instead of fries and eat only half my burger.
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I’m waiting for the novelisation.
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That raises an interest dilemma. If this has inspired one to donate, it would be better to donate directly and avoid the crowd-funding fees, but that won’t count towards to goal. If the goal’s not met, the charity gets nothing.
There must be a better way…
I was confused, until I realized this is probably a typo?
In checking the internet – hey, I was about to learn what a filk band was! – I discovered the whole story:
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