This message was to APIS LIST MAIL but looked good enough to eat so here
it is for you all to read....... the OLd Drone
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Good Job, Dr. Sanford, and here is my normal cynical notes..<G>
 
T>          HELP SAVE THE HONEYBEE
 
T>          1.  Call the Help Save the Honeybee Hotline
 >          (800/362-2006) and request a full information
 >          packet, number two on your touch-tone phone.
 
Good Luck, I called the day of the press release, Oct. 23,
and have yet to receive any information, and no nothing other then
what I read in the press release and some insider information that
I have already passed along.
 
 >          This is one way General Mills will be judging the
 >          response to the program in order to make a
 >          decision about continuing it past its expiration
 >          date of January 31, 1997.
 
I would like to see that in writing as I am a cynic. How many calls
will it take? I will set my war dialer up and give it a try...With out
the rules of this contest it is hard to say if it is even possible
to win. Sometimes the devil hides in the details, such as the bee can
only come from the $5 family size box and all these .89 cents bees I
have been collecting will not count.
 
If the beekeepers have to eat all 400,000 boxes of HONEYNUT CHEERIOS
by Jan. 31, and I am on my 4th with the help of my cat whom I have
concerns for his health, anyway thats about 40 boxes each per beekeeper
if we could contact all of them and there were 10,000. Not that we
should not try just to spite GM for this kind of cheep PR which will
not fill the void in the honey industries bucket by the millions of
pounds of honey GENERAL MILLS says they are not going to buy because
they say "we raised the price to high, and honey is not an essential
ingredient in their products.", or will it really make that much
difference to bee research as 1/3 of $100,000, or much less as it looks
today, is nice and would be appreciated I am sure, but it is not enough
to do much more then outline a research project at todays rates.
 
But then would it not serve a better purpose to just donate to bee
science the cost of one large box of HONEYNUT CHEERIOS, that contains
few nuts and little honey, and cut out the middle man, GM, and the US
Postal Service, that will have a grater windfall then our scientific
institutions. And more important leave the promotion of GM and its
products to their own advertising budget and agency's.
 
But then that would require the universities to have more then an out
stretched hand and they would have to have a research project in mind
that "would save the bees" and not just spend the money.
 
I been thinking of filling my Christmas gift list with boxes of HONEYNUT
CHEERIOS minus the cut off bee, but until I know the full effects on
the health of my cat. I will wait to see if he recovers from this 4th
box by Christmas, I am worried about his urinary health as the high
priced cat food advertisements warn me to be concerned about that. I
would never have known without them...about as enlightening to me as all
the hemorrhoid or yeast infection commercials.
 
T>          2.  Contact local newspapers, especially those
 >          that have run stories about bee losses, and get
 >          them to publicize the campaign.
 
But what if they asked about the bee losses? Should I lie and say
it is that way here, or just say that is what others are saying?
 
T>          3.  Encourage association members, schools
 >          and other groups to clip and collect the
 >          caricatures for redemption.
 
I guess if HONEYNUT CHEERIOS does not kill my cat it will be OK
for the kids who are all going to die with brain cancer from drinking
diet soda with aspartame anyway.
 
T>          The redemption address is Help Save the
 >          Honeybee,
 
I personally think companies like GENERAL MILLS is playing nothing more
then the opportunist with this "save the bees" campaign and considering
the millions and millions of dollars they have gained over the years by
trading on the good name of HONEY to sell their over priced products
could well afford if they were truly concerned the $100,000. with no
strings, and no effort at all, or any loss to their company. They
complain about the high cost of honey as they are forced by competition
to reduce their own product prices 25%-50% as they have been ripping all
us kids off for years.
 
I don't want to appear to bee looking a gift horse in the mouth but I
think that we should insist that GM pay the $100,000 if by Jan. 31, they
have not received the 400,000 cut out bees just on the principal that
they have been using HONEY to sell their products that contain little
honey, (granted they buy lots of Honey, but in each box there may be
more insect parts then honey anyway), and now they want to tread on the
back of the beekeeper because some, under the cover of Bee Science,
(BS), have already composed our obituary...."up the bees", "save" the
Beekeepers from wasting their time and effort in promoting a product
that may not even bee good cat food.
 
But I must admit all I got to do is rattle the box and my cat will come
down from the top of the telephone pole that the fire department wanted
$75. to bring him down the 2nd time..and refused to leave the ladder
truck in front of my house so I could do it.
 
                         ttul, the OLd Drone
 
          We accept all cash donations! Sorry no bee cut outs.
                   Andy Nachbaur, 1522 Paradise Lane
                         Los Banos, Ca 93635
 
 
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