Justin-Mila or Justinila?

Are Justin and Mila secretly dating?  Or is that just publicity for their new movie Friends With Benefits? And, by the way, will Snooki appear on Dancing With the Stars?

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I'm so sorry... this is a naughty ploy to make you look. I won't do it again, promise. My actual subject today is a fundraiser for Oakland Mayor Jean Quan at our house on Monday night. She will be talking about the future of Oakland. Fair enough, police pensions and budget cuts are a tough thing to hear about. But it should be a nice evening in our living room, mixing with neighbours over a glass of wine and dinner. It's a "unique opportunity" (sorry that was a bit much) to ask Jean Quan the tough questions or even about the potholes outside your house.

But we just can't get people to come. We were hoping for 50 to 70 people, raising about $5,000. So far we have 15 yes's,  45 no's, 1 maybe and 110 not replied.

How are we going to do it? I would love your advice.

You might have met Jean here and here.  She is a hard-working do-er, a "civil servant" not a politician, who has given back 25% of her salary, $46,000, because of the budget crisis. I wanted to host this evening as Jean was left with a $100,000 debt from her campaign. I really think in the future each politician, local or national, should be given a specific campaign fund.  Though this would have to be funded by taxes, it would help eliminate the incidence of politicians working to serve the interests of their campaign backers. We are asking for a donation of $100 per couple for drinks and dinner at our house, Jean Quan will talk and people will have the opportunity to chat with her and voice concerns.

But I get it. I totally get it. People want to give their spare money to charities. And then we are asking people to come out on a Monday night - down-time with family or alone is prized and let's face it - the lure of relaxing in front of "Million Dollar Decorators" is pretty strong.

Firstly we sent out an Evite to 160 people using this recent photo of Jean (far left) with Michelle Obama in Oakland. We wrote:

"Please come to our house to meet Mayor Jean Quan. This is a great opportunity to meet the Mayor, express your views and ask tough questions. Jean will talk about the recent budget negotiations and her plans for Oakland. We will provide drinks and a light supper"

Photo via Lailan Huen on Facebook

Using Evite may have been a mistake:  efficient but so ubiquitous as to be seen as impersonal, a bit spam-y and easy to ignore when sent out to large numbers.  We didn't "hide" the replies, so I suspect the more "No's" we received, maybe the easier it is to say "No."

We then decided to distribute a flier using this photo.

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Kevin and our friend Sally took about 50 fliers around the neighbourhood. Tallulah, 10, and Cy, 7, accompanied Kevin on the trail, Cy bouncing his ball and talking constantly, Tallulah singing and cycling. So far one reply.

Cy, Kevin and Tallulah handing out flyers

We have three days left - what should we do? Should we have used a different photo, different wording?