What happens when your 18-month-old post is one of the top Google results for And Tango Makes Three, the children's book about the true story of two male penguins in the Central Park Zoo who hatch and raise an egg together?
Well, until parents in the St. Louis-commutable town of Shiloh, Ill. [1] tried to get the book locked up in their kid's school library because they considered its "sexual" content inappropriate, nothing. [Never mind that there's nothing remotely sexual in the book, certainly nothing beyond any story that mentions a "mommy" or "daddy".]
But after that, dozens people who have Googled "gay penguin book" late at night will bombard you with hatemail about how SICK they get thinking about homosexuals and how TIRED they are of having The Homosexual Agenda shoved in their face.
Then twice that many will leave flaming [sic] comments on your site, causing you to delete most of them, answer some of them, and then finally close comments for the first time ever.
And you'll sell more copies of the book in two days than you've sold in the previous 18 months combined.
So as you mourn the loss of your weekend, and as you apologize to your wife and kid for your grumpy mood, you'll hope a megachurch somewhere is plotting to ban some bigger-commission items like, say, Bugaboos and Orbits. And you'll hope they do it before the holiday shopping season ends.
Again With The Gay Penguins? WTF?? [galleycat]
Previously: And Tango Makes Three: The story of America's most beloved gay penguin family
And Tango's Daddy's new girlfriend makes four
[1] From the Wikipedia entry for Shiloh, Illinois (2000 pop. 7,643):
Many of the older houses in Shiloh are small however in the last few years 2001-2006 there has been a massive push in new construction homes ranging from 1700 to 3500 sqft. These new homes are at least partially brick have in most cases a full basement and are vauled between 200 to 400k. the masssive growth can be attributed to two things. the construction of a new interstate exchange and the fact that the St. Louis Metro area has just about reached it's limit going West and Shiloh is on it's Eastern edge @ Exit 16 on Hwy 64. Children in Shiloh benefit from an excellent school system and love to play outdoors. The neighborhoods of Shiloh are widely considered to be quite safe ( thanks to the outstanding Police Department ) and most people know their neighbors by name, many of the people in Shiloh have pet's. There are many acres of wood around some houses, where you can spot, rabbits, mean old squirrels who destroy things and eat your gardens, and foxes.People shop for groceries at Dierbergs, the Commisary on the Scott, Air Force Base, or Shop 'n' Save.
Man, two things I hate: (1) when I search for "gay penguin book" and get the homosexual agenda shoved in my face, and (2) when I search for "big bouncy boobs" and all I get is porn shoved in my face!
I was thinking the same thing - there are many things, people and ideas I am well sick of, and I pretty much never Google them. Actually, I'll go out on a limb and say I never do.
Apparently it would have been my loss for never Googling Shiloh, IL, had you not done so, because that was one of the finer Wikipedia entries I've seen. One hopes the author is a product of the "excellent school system." Also, what's with the mad discrimination against squirrels? Hand over some nuts, folks; they'll be much nicer and less destructive and you can keep your hate-filled rhetoric off the Internet.
That's one of the reason's I went coastal. I also have relatives not far from there. I wouldn't be surprised if they were some of the good folks who sent you hate mail.
Wait. Many of the people in Shiloh have pet's ... what? If they have something belonging to pet, they ought to at least tell us: what it is, and, who this "pet" is...
Oh, the mystery! That must be how they lure people to their town!
[to there credit, I think only a few people's of Shiloh were behind the drive, and the school superintindeant told them to jump in the Mississippi. And those parents were probbaly to busy being interviewed by the likes of CNN flamethrower-wannabe (and DT advertiser) Glenn Beck to email me. Winguts who watch CNN, that's my demographic. -ed., Shilo HS class of '90, if I retake senior english...]
i love the comment about if the book includes drawings of penguins humping.
My parents have had a set of these (http://www.taylorandng.com/img/anidaybl.gif) Taylor & Ng mugs ever since I was a baby. I used to get to drink from them as a "special treat" when I was a little kid, when I though they were just a bunch of animals climbing over each other.
One day at the age of like 15 I took a good look at the pictures and all of a sudden realized the animals weren't just climbing around.
just wanted to add...
I'm pretty sure they were laughing about it when I was a little kid, I like to tell them now how it *traumatized me for life*. I didn't even realize till now that probably there were some male-male couples in there! (*sarcasm*)
(sorry for the double post)