Well, I'm soon off for my Vacation Day 2 Adventure -- a much delayed, highly anticipated "coffee" with Bram of The Pittsburgh Comet. We are meeting at Amani International Coffeehouse on the Northside. Amani is in between webpages, so I can't post a working link.  I have been rah-rahhing Steel City Stonewall to hold an event at Amani because they are smoke free, have delish food and a large television.  I am going through a big cable envy phase.  It will pass as soon as I get my first gas bill for the autumn. 

Other items on my fun to do list this week include a massage with hot stones, lunch with my friend Amy, a debriefing with my therapist who does not look like Barbra Streisand, a much overdue oil change and farmers' market date with my friend Adrienne.  Plus, enjoying my first ever pedicure.  My toes are blue!

Less fun on the agenda includes cleaning out my closets (not the Eminem version), washing the pile of jackets the cat slept on all summer, scrubbing the litter boxes, and replacing all the dog bedding.  Fun, fun, fun ...

Oh, those naughty little penguins and their homosexual desires.  I know this post is going to attract at least 37 google searches desperate to identify a homosexual tidbit about a professional hockey player, but I am referring to "And Tango Makes Three" which topped the charts of the book most often challenged in school and public libraries.  It among others will be recognized this coming October 2 during the ACLU's Banned Book Week celebration.

Tango is about two male penguins who build a family together.  A zookeeper gives them a fertilized egg and ... poof! they raise little Tango to be a healthy, well-adjusted penguin. 

I have to work on October 2, so I cannot attend.  This is an important issue, especially since Sarah Palin has demonstrated that she's no friend to Tango.  Please try to attend and stand up for freedom of expression.  It is imperative that we tolerate expression we find incongruent with our personal beliefs and values in order to foster an ongoing healthy public discourse. 

Whenver the topic of banning books comes up, I always think of an episode of The Waltons where John-Boy finds a copy of the Bible among a pile of to-be-burned books written in German.  I remember thinking to myself that the Bible was available in English -- what about all those other things written in German that might not be translated?  Not quite what the writers were going for, but there you have it.