When we started our holiday tradition known as Buck-a-Hit Day, the setup was simple. For every unique visit to this blog on a designated day, we'd give a dollar to charity. It was where charity met vanity.

The first one of these days was five years ago, when the routine traffic through this site was a great deal lighter than it is today. Given our limited supply of money, after a while we couldn't afford to give a dollar for every hit, and so we had to set a limit -- typically, $1,000. That number of unique visits was virtually guaranteed, and so last year to add some suspense we threw in a bonus of an additional $1 for every dollar before noon that the we hit the 1,000-visit mark. (It turned out we got there 76 minutes before noon.)

This year, a benefactor of this blog who is both prosperous and generous has offered to take us back to our high-rollin' roots. He'll give $1 to the Oregon Food Bank for every hit on this blog next Wednesday, up to $5,000! And so rather than quit counting the hits at 1,000, this year we'll keep going to five times that number, with a new dollar going to the food bank for every unique visit. (We use SiteMeter for the "official" count.)

This wonderful new development means that we'll need lots of extra visits beyond the number from a typical day on this blog. Assuming that we're not showing photos of Sarah Palin's torso, our readership on a typical weekday usually comes in at around 3,000 unique visits, and so the laws of inertia aren't going to get us to 5,000 without some serious help from strangers. We're back to the olden days, where having new folks show up all day really will make a difference. Please help us get out the word and get readers in here that day -- next Wednesday, December 17.

We're still putting the rest of the day's program together, but for sure, there will be a place for readers to donate, a comments contest, and who knows what all else. We'll have a couple of match challenges going from several folks, and the Bogdanski's are going to be part of that, to the tune of $1,100. More on all that on Monday. The main thing is, please come back on Wednesday, and tell your buddies! In this case, viral would be good.