Paula Deen, the infamous southern chef on the Food Network is continuing to make headlines. The publisher of her new cookbook is dumping plans to publish it. “Paula Deen’s New Testament: 250 Favorite Recipes, All Lightened Up,” due out in October was ranked No. 1 on Amazon. A bunch of her fans are buying her other books and leaving angry messages on the site in protest.

My son David and his family have a non allergic dog named Lucy. She's a schnoodle. When they go away she stays with us. It did not take long for us to love her (and her breed). Because I'm allergic to dogs, we have not had one in many many years. However, Lucy broke through and as a result I agreed to Joanne's request that we get a puppy, as long as it too was a schnoodle. Soon we had this little black ball of fuzz and we named her Charcoal.

Although married, Flo and I do not share last names. Among our three married children, one couple shares a last name, one couple has chosen to each retain their surname, and in one, my daughter-in-law has hyphenated her last name.

We heard about the Rutgers scandal with basketball coach Mike Rice a couple months back.  He was fired for his abusive basketball style which was actually caught on video.  He was guilty of physically contacting kids in a detrimental manner and using homophobic slurs.  

You know those moments – the ones that we all pretend never happened. Here is my most recent entry in the “Book of Embarrassment”.

In an interview published this month in Vogue magazine, Katie Perry revealed that her now ex-husband Russell Brand told her he wanted a divorce via a text message. Similarly, Real Housewives of Atlanta cast member, Porsha Stewart, revealed that she was told that her husband, NFL player Kordell Stewart, wanted a divorce via Twitter.

Two nights ago I sat outside on our small deck taking in the last light and fading blue sky.  It was 8:30.  I recalled a trip to the Canadian Rockies years ago when the high summer sun did not set until almost 10 pm.  And this morning I woke up early to blazing sun streaming through the blinds.  Nice.

This past week, if anybody noticed, the Miami Heat won their 2nd straight NBA title. Or as the media puts it Lebron James won his second straight title. Some media outlets have indicated that it's the start of a dynasty. Others insist that the perverbial "monkey" is off his back.