Your group may be the difference between full and empty this year

Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn't know you left open.

-- John Barrymore

Is your civic organization, neighborhood association, fraternity, sorority or Sunday school class looking for a deserving Christmas charity?

Might I suggest The Chronicle 's Empty Stocking Fund.

One-hundred percent of your tax-deductible donation goes to help an individual or family that could sure use your help.

All the work of this annual effort is undertaken by employees of The Chronicle , as it has been since 1930.

Talk among your groups this weekend, and see if you can give.

I would love to read your name on the list of generous donors.

Mail donations to The Augusta Chronicle 's Empty Stocking Fund, P.O. Box 1928, Augusta, GA 30903-1928, or make donations online at augustachronicle.com/emptystocking/.

NAME GAME: OK, admit it. You still can't pronounce the name of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich , accused of asking money to appoint someone to the U.S. Senate.

If you want to impress people at the Christmas party this weekend, try "Bluh-GOY-uh-vich."

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Scott Gay , of Waynesboro, reminds us: "We make ourselves rich by making our wants few."

HOW THINGS WORK: Mr. Gay also shares this assessment.

He says:

Experts are people who know a great deal about very little and who go along learning more and more about less and less until they know practically everything about nothing.

Lawyers, on the other hand, are people who know very little about many things and keep learning less and less about more and more until they know practically nothing about everything.

Judges are people who start out knowing everything about everything but end up knowing nothing about anything due to their constant association with experts and lawyers.

TODAY'S JOKE: Here's one shared by Everett Fernandez .

Recently, I got to thinking about my first skydiving instructor.

During class he would always take the time to answer any of our stupid first-timer questions.

One guy asked, "If our chute doesn't open, and the reserve doesn't open, how long do we have until we hit the ground?"

Our jump-master looked at him and in perfect deadpan answered, "The rest of your life."