Sasha Frere-Jones needs your help! The New Yorker music critic has lost his hard drive, which is filled with photos, and he's asking his readers to chip in $5,000 to help him recover his data. Oh, and he knows how this looks! He offers a "disclaimer":

I know—fancypants New Yorker writer, what the fuck, etc.

Let us fill in the etc. for him! Isn't it a tiny bit unseemly for a writer in such a position of privilege to go hat in hand to his readers? We're especially fond of this note:

(I will not send individual thank you notes but will post an honor roll when we've reached the finish line. Thank you, though, to those who have already pitched in.)

So don't expect personal thanks, but if you're the kind of person who's excited to touch the hem of a New Yorker writer — and be publicly associated with him, right there on his own Web page! — by all means, contribute away.

Collection Plate [S/FJ]