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 ---------------------------------------- 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 (c) Permission is granted to freely copy this document in any form, or to print for any use. (w)Opinions are not necessarily facts. Use at own risk. --- ~ QMPro 1.53 ~ Santa on the Web <http://www.santamail.com>