The very nature of the job meant that he had to say no to about 50,000 would-be contributors a year while saying yes to only about 3,000.

But with the old board still in place, the housecleaning remains incomplete; would-be contributors may reasonably wonder whether it makes sense to put new wine into old wineskins.

One potential donor to the party, who also spoke on the condition of not being identified, said that other would-be contributors from New York support Mr. Bloomberg's decision.

Culture in Britain has benefited from the hugely successful national lottery, but in the process may have given a false appearance of arts prosperity to would-be contributors.

Mr. McLean advises would-be contributors to look at several years of the group's 990's.

The message is all the more urgent because its mere presence hints that would-be contributors often do submit the same essay to more than one journal simultaneously.

Thus, with humility (as well as gratitude to the many contributors and would-be contributors to this column), I offer the following thoughts on the oft-tortured state of modern love.

The sting involved the informer, Mr. Alanssi, introducing the sheik to a second man posing as a would-be contributor to terrorist causes.

It was clear that most of our would-be contributors never bought or read the journal - if they did, our financial outlook would be far brighter.

And those who denigrate waltzes have obviously never watched the telephones ring during a pledge break after one has cheered up would-be contributors.