About a week ago we told you about a new fundraiser that Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin is doing to raise money for a wolf sanctuary and a large food bank in New Mexico. While Martin and the people behind the fundraiser claimed that the top prize was a helicopter ride with Martin to check out the wolves, the real head-turner was a little further down the page: For a $20,000 donation, Martin would write you into one of the upcoming books, then kill you off. (You could also get one of his “worn hats!” — exclamation point theirs — for $7500, which was and still is hilarious.)
As you can imagine, this became a big honking deal very quickly.
To [Martin’s] surprise, the two spots in his charity contest sold out within hours, and another eight people soon joined a waiting list, with all begging the author of A Song of Ice and Fire to take their money and kill them off, too.
Fine. Great. But whooooo wonnnnnnn?
Dave Goldblatt, a Facebook employee who snagged one of the prizes, tells THR it took him just 10 minutes to decide to pull the trigger on his big donation.
“I’m fortunate enough to be in a position to do this cool thing, and it’s going toward a good cause,” he says of his donation. “I don’t think I’m doing anything extraordinary.” […]
“I want to be a Valyrian if at all possible,” he says, referring to the long-dead (or are they?) race in Martin’s books. “But he figures it out himself. I wouldn’t want to impinge upon his creative process.”
According to Goldblatt’s LinkedIn page he’s been with Facebook since 2007, so it’s probably safe to assume he’s got some of that sweet, sweet IPO money burning a hole in his pocket. Good for him, I say. What’s the point of being rich if you can’t be weird and fun about it? I mean, I still wish someone famous had won so Martin would have been forced to write something like “… and so Arya Stark ran her blade through Ser Wolf Blitzer of Westeros, justice served for crimes committed,” but whatever. Maybe he can have this Facebook dude get torn limb-from-limb by a mob of angry peasants who are demanding a dislike button. That would be fine, too.