Don't forget amid all the holiday hubbub that this Wednesday is Buck-a-Hit Day on this blog. For every unique visitor to this site that day, a benefactor of ours has once again pledged to give $1 to the Oregon Food Bank -- up to $5,000. That's far more than the typical number of visitors this site receives in a day, and so we need readers to return here on Wednesday. It's the easiest way you can give a buck to charity -- just click.

In addition, I and some other readers have pledged to match up to $2,450 in contributions that visitors make when they visit here on Wednesday. We'll have a list of five Portland-area charities for you to choose from, and when you donate a dollar (by clicking on a link and paying), we'll donate a dollar, up to $2,450 of contributions by you. Together we'd be putting up $4,900.

Last but not least, another $250 will go to a charity picked by the winner of the comments contest we'll be running that day. Readers will be asked to post something appropriate for the season, and the best entry, as selected by readers in a poll on Thursday, will get to steer $250 of our money to a charity of the winner's choice.

And so all told, we've got $10,150 as our goal this year -- which would push us past last year's surprisingly excellent results. To get to that level again in tough times would be wonderful, but it is going to take you. And so please come back on Wednesday to make it happen, and please send other readers our way.