Okay, so this was going to go up today, notifying you that Commissioner James Gordon previously noted on this page as vying for the office of Cutest Dog, was into the semi-final voting and needed your support.

But we’ve recently received word that voting was only to occur Sunday night. The reasons for this are not clear at this time, but screw that. If you’re reading this, I don’t think that it’s still Sunday where you are, but it appears you can vote still for Gordon. As of this writing, Gordon has approximately 5400 votes and his nearest competitor 4000, but this is no time to be complacent; if he makes it to the finals it will put Chris Hastings and Carly Monardo that much closer to paying for their wedding and having something even more important.

That’s actually what I wanted to talk about, if you’ll indulge me. Some people in the contest are pledging their winnings (if they win) to various causes (most notably, to the shelter where week 12 winner and currently second-in-vote-totals Little Bitsy was rescued). There was apparently a lot of talk on the forums of the competition site about whether or not a particular dog “deserved” to win based on where the money might go.

You know what? There’s a lot of places that a million dollars might to a lot of good, more than Chris & Carly’s bank account, more than a shelter. My volunteer EMS agency is perpetually underfunded, and that $33,000/year would make good on our insurance payments (although even at implausibly low rates of premium growth, we’d be falling behind by year 22) but not even come close to clearing our operational expenses (much less capital expenses — you have any idea how much an ambulance costs?).

Point being, the contest itself is, by definition, a frivolous thing. The prize will not Carly and Chris sit back in unearned luxury while poolboys and cabana girls feed them peeled grapes. By itself, it would just about come to married couple only needs one roommate to make rent stage in Brooklyn. But it would give them something most artists can only dream of — a safety cushion to their income for the next couple of decades (head over here for the story of another artist who just achieved the same). There’s a lot of things I’d give a million dollars to in an ideal world, but if one of them is ensuring some talented people (who entertain me for free) don’t have to worry about whether they can pay for health care? That’s a pretty good start.

Frankly, since the rules say that the votes at this stage are only guidance to the judges, I fully expect that the grand prize will go to one of the I’ll give it to the shelter dogs. However, $5000 for making it to the final stage would make a nice dent in the Monardo/Hastings wedding bills, so let’s see if we can start there.

• In other news, damn you, Randall Munroe. My eyes are bad enough without you foisting that monstrosity onto us. I thought I’d never have to see another animated guy working/site under construction GIF.
• For those of you that didn’t listen to NPR’s On The Media this weekend, it was all about the music industry and its current tribulations. Nice piece towards the end of the hour about Amanda Palmer and her contention that artists have to get over their reluctance to say to their audience, I want you to give me money. Those seeking to make a living from their art, give it a good listen.