I like most web surfers am trained to ignore online ads, but one blogad today caught my eye, because it purported to be about a literary beggar named Jack who was liable to blow his brains soon out if he didn’t receive enough donations to support his writing.

This is Jack.

If he doesn’t catch a break in the publishing business pretty soon, he’s liable to hop a train to Ketchem, Idaho and blow his brains out with a shotgun, just like his literary hero, You-Know-Who.

Keep Jack from hopping that train. Visit literarybeggar.com to find out how.

So far, at the time of this writing, only $275 have been raised for Jack and other writers by this ad. It will be interesting to follow its progress and see how much money ends up being raised. Of course, it’s not really just for somebody named Jack. It’s for a non-profit called WordArts, which purports to be a literary non-profit that already publishes two ezines that pay writers and that hopes to be able to offer grants to writers soon. If WordArts is legitimate, more power to ‘em. And more power to Jack, too, if he exists.