I've still got a good bit to learn, but I want to thank E-Hell for letting me help my friends - and to make sure the advice I gave her was OK. She was invited to a baby shower for (I kid you not) the daughter of a random (presumably very distant, since she included "not even related" in the story) cousin whom she had only met briefly at a function. She said, "Nothing screams 'give me stuff' ('stuff' replacing another word she used)," like an invite like this. I told her, "Politely decline to attend and do not send a thing. Do not feed the gimme pigs."