Smith: Aidan, his mom and a little bird

Amy Malaise, who works at SRJC's Doyle Library, had a minor matter to take up with her son, Aidan, who's 5.

She said, "A little bird told me that you had some conflict with a friend today over a train car."

Aidan asked, with a scrunched nose, "WHAT little bird?"

"The little bird I send to school with you every day to make sure you are using your good behavior," his mom said. "So, did you and your friend come up with a solution?"

To which Aidan replied, a bit contemptuously, "Ask your bird!"

THE KENYAN SCHOOL that serves children in a slum and that thinks the world of 9-year-old Riley Orton of Kenwood has launched a crowdfunding site.

Riley became a special friend of Akili Preparatory School after he learned of its mission to teach, feed, clothe and shelter children in the Obunga slums of the port city of Kisumu.

The boy's efforts to collect money and supplies for Akili prompted its founders to name its funding organization The Riley Orton Foundation.

It welcomes visits to igg.me/at/rileyorton/x/5048135.

YOU A DEED-DOER? Earlier this year, Riley Orton was named the winner of dentist Andrew McCormick's 2013 Good Deed Contest.

Now, Dr. McCormick is accepting entries to the 2014 contest. To enter, a Sonoma County student of any age must simply write up a good deed he or she performed.

Email the statement to loveyourteeth@docmac.com, or deliver it to 855 Fountaingrove Parkway, Suite 200, Santa Rosa 95403

The award will be one of the same things that helps Riley to do his philanthropic work: a dandy laptop computer.

90 AND FALLING: Longtime Santa Rosan Virginia Graves celebrated turning 90 by jumping from an airplane while strapped to a professional skydiver in Hollister.

The rush has her looking now into cliff-diving.

NARY A DROP: When she found a 375 ml back-pocket Korbel brandy bottle discarded in her side yard in Santa Rosa's Hidden Valley neighborhood, a long-retired schoolteacher was mildly curious and annoyed.

And that was five bottles ago. The dismayed homeowner can only imagine why someone is tossing the bottles onto her property, but of one thing she's certain.

She'd feel much better about picking them up if whomever's leaving them would drop a full one now and then.

Chris Smith is at 521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.