Back in September, Kathy Cox, the Georgia State Schools Superintendent, won $1 Million on Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?. Cox vowed to give all of her winnings to three Georgia schools for special-needs children. Then some complications arose: last week, Kathy and her husband John, who are in the home-building business, filed for bankruptcy. Cox, in a statement, said:

The collapse of the home-building market has been well documented, and small builders, like my husband, have been hit especially hard. This was a gut-wrenching decision, but in the end, we felt that we had no choice.

Well, that sucks. See, this is why you should never say you're giving anything to charity. So no money for the special-needs kids, right? Wrong. Cox will still give the $1 million to the schools, despite the fact that she and her husband are bankrupt, with $3.5 million in liabilities and only $649,728 in assets . Damn.

Big ups to Kathy Cox this holiday season. We'd have probably sold those special-needs kids out in a heartbeat.

-- Jake Kalish is the author of Santa vs. Satan: The Official Compendium of Imaginary Fights