Announcements!

Two things to PlainTalk about today - news items, if you will.

First, congratulations to the winners of our Banned Books Week contest. Our two winners, Steven and Laura, successfully guessed the opening lines of the following books: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, The Grapes of Wrath, Catcher in the Rye and The Color Purple. Not surprisingly, both were English majors in college as well. Laura also tipped us off to something we had not heard before, the idea that it was Truman Capote, not Harper Lee, who wrote To Kill A Mockingbird. Hmmm - we do love a good literary conspiracy theory! :) Steven and Laura were rewarded for their bookishness with $50.00 gift certificates to Via Roma, the charming new Italian eatery at 686 Lee Street in Des Plaines.

A second piece of news: you may have heard that the city is printing a very limited number of copies of next year's budget. If you want to see the budget yourself, we suggest two options. First, there is a hard copy available at our 4th floor reference desk for your perusal. If you have computer access, the entire budget can be found online: http://www.desplaines.org/Services/Finance/AnnualBudget.asp

That's all for today. When PlainTalk returns, we'll yelp about Yelp.