That Alec Baldwin. He's all right.

Was that so hard?

See? I knew things were going to start looking up for Central Falls. Today the Providence Journal reported that Alec Baldwin is tossing the Central Falls library $10,000 from his charitable foundation. Ever one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I initially thought this was chump change, it's actually a pretty sizable gift, given how Mr. Baldwin chooses to give his money away. His foundation is a pass-through; that is,  instead of having a big, big wad of money and only giving away what the government requires every year, like a lot of wealthy people do, he gives away practically everything he puts in it. And he gives it to a ton of different charities, instead of just one or two, which, again, a lot of rich people do. (Sorry for the philanthropy lesson. This is what I do for a living.) So... yay! Yay for Central Falls.

Apparently Jack Donaghy was moved to make the donation after reading this article in last Saturday's New York Times, which talked about a $100-a-head fundraiser for the library the night before. Depressingly, a library board member admitted that not many actual Central Falls residents were able to foot that kind of bill, but today's ProJo said the shindig managed to raise $15K.  But back to depressing: the ProJo thought it necessary to describe what the Hamptons are, since Baldwin is on the board of a library out there: "a popular beach resort on Long Island that caters to the rich and famous."  For heaven's sake. First of all, that's wrong. Second, does anyone out there really not know what the Hamptons are? Anybody?

So! Now all we need is for about a thousand more Alec Baldwins to send checks for ten grand, and Central Falls will be set. In the meantime, to show my appreciation, I'm going to rent Outside Providence. And watch it!