How the NEA bit the dust
Accidentally Funded
Historical footnote: accidentally funded and kept from the public, this project provided the ballast Sen. Jesse Helms needed to all-but-eliminate the NEA. When Helms received a video of Mike Taylor engaging in acts clearly outside the moral purview of the country, accompanied by an itemized spending account for $40, 985.67 of taxpayer money, the golden age of arts grants ended with a single phone call. The elder statesman invited Margaret Corgan, administrator for the endowment, to his office. “I’m ready to compromise,” said Helms, “and when you see this videotape you funded, you’ll be ready too.”
$900
Children’s dolls
60 children’s dolls at $15 a piece. If some charitable organization can make use of these dolls (I will fully inform the charitable institution that these dolls have been up my ass), they will be donated.