ONLINE CHATTER >>>

Today's comment comes from Laura in response to a recent column by Amy Alkon, whose "Advice Goddess" runs every week in the Volcano.

Laura writes,

To Fraught:

I have a very different opinion from Amy Alkon. Sex is not simply an act, or you would not feel as afraid as you do and the emotional issue of "cheating" would not really exist. If she is a really great girl, she can wait for something meaningful with a really great guy.

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 28, 2011 >>>

1. The Scrabble Rousers will push the wood from 6:30-9:30 p.m. inside King's Books. Entrance fee is $10 per person with proceeds benefiting the Tacoma Community House Student Scholarship Fund. And since it's Banned Books Week, you'll be rewarded if you come dressed as your favorite character from a blasphemous book.

2. Join your peers for discussions on local, regional and national arts advocacy issues and updates from Pierce County and municipalities at noon inside the Tacoma Municipal Building. Panelists include Andreda Mensink, Business Development manager at Tacoma Regional Convention & Visito Bureau and Mark Gerth, the new executive director of the Washington Sate Arts Alliance.

3. The Kareem Kandi Band and jazz trumpeter Jay Thomas will fill Tacoma's Pour at Four wine bar with awesome jazz from 7:30-9:30 p.m.

4. Jazzbones' Wednesday Sessions hosts the Olivia De La Cruz for a night of soulful, lyrical and passion beginnign at 9 p.m.

5. A tall, bearded man who always sports a utilikilt, Rev. Colin possesses a wealth of oddball musical knowledge and a disarming ease for calling everyone "baby." Having hosted karaoke for a little more than 12 years, Rev. Colin will host 9 p.m. karaoke at Puget Sound Pizza with a sure hand and a sense of fairness with who gets to sing and how often.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Half-priced wine nights

WHAT WE HAVE FOUND TODAY >>>

Look At This Beauty: Hi, I'm Joe Michael with Save-A-Lot right here in beautiful Hilltop Tacoma. Boy do I have a deal for you. For instance, check out this stunning shopping cart, new wheels, look at the shine - it's yours for only $19.99. Come on down and see me. (News Tribune)

Joyce McDonald Had A Motion: E-I-E-I-Overturns veto. (News Tribune)

I Am The God Of Kindle And I Bring You... Fire: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos unveils $199 Kindle Fire tablet. (CNN)

TV Will Now Have Less Inapproraite Hair: Any Rooney's final appearanc eon ^0 Minutes will be Sunday. (USA Today)

Truth?: Demi Moore is officially ending her six-year marriage to Ashton Kutcher after he allegedly had sex with a 23-year-old woman in his room at the Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego last week. (New York Post)

Good Luck To The Cure: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominees have been announced. (Prefix)

Last Night: Roger Waters and the Foo Fighters rock out on Late Night With Jikmmy Fallon. (stereogum)

William Shatner is Iron Man.

LET'S DRINK SOME BEER SATURDAY >>>

October hits Saturday, carrying fall along with it. So, what does that tell you? Yes, that's right, it's beer season. What, you may ask, does this time of year, specifically, have to do with beer? The venerable Oktoberfests, of course. The summer heat is dying down enough to allow a midday buzz to last longer than five minutes.

Now, to brazenly and brutally classify, there are two distinct types of people who typically attend Oktoberfest revelry. First, there are those individuals who support their favorite brews and breweries and go to sample the new variations that have made it into what have become Washington state's regal brewing ranks. We shall deem this group "Aficionados."

Now, the other group. Let me first pose a rather personal question: Have you ever begun drinking shortly after pulling yourself out of your disheveled bed, before breakfast was even a seedling of a thought, say at nine or 10 in the morning? You know, those times when you are clearly done putting the drink down the hatch by noon and are unsuccessfully trying to sleep off a nasty, nasty hangover in thy poor head by early afternoon? Well, this festival also brings out those who are extremely well versed in this routine. We shall tenderly call this group "Chet."

Chet season ends with the summer sun. Last weekend's Fremont Oktoberfest witnessed the last Chet spill another beer on the heat-soaked cement while stumbling awkwardly down the street trying to find the elusive empty port-o-potty.  A few die-hard Chets might show up for Oktoberfest Tacoma Saturday in Tacoma's Opera Alley, but it's geared more toward the Aficionados.

Presented by the Triangle Business District, Amocat Café and The Mix, Oktoberfest Tacoma will feature the following local beers for Aficionados: 7 Seas Brewing, American Brewing, Burris Brewing, Harmon Brewery, Lazy Boy Brewing, Schooner Exact, Trade Route Brewing and Wingman Brewers. As a bonus, Oktoberfest Tacoma spreads its fats arms to breweries in distant lands such as: Avery, Dogfish Head, Leavenworth Brewery and Silver City Brewing. Ciders will also be poured.

Mixed in with all the drinking will be pretzels, a pie-eating contest, chainsaw pumpkin carving and more.

Admission is $12 advance and $18 at the door and includes five generous tastings. Additional tasting tokens can be purchased for $1.50. Tickets can be purchased online through Brown Paper Tickets or in person at 99 Bottles and Amocat Cafe.

So leave your hanky tops and hair gel at home, pull on a woolly sweater, and learn that happiness is best achieved by tipping a brew.

Oh, and be on the lookout for Chet.

[Opera Alley, 2-10 p.m., $12-$18 includes five tastings, Seventh and Opera Alley, downtown Tacoma, oktoberfesttacoma.com]

BIRTHDAY DREAMS >>>

Thing: Crazy doughnuts

Place: Legendary Doughnuts

I love: Doughnuts

Say it together: Mmmmm DOUGHNUTS

Who knows my true age?  Only my besties.  Coincidentally, it is only my besties who actually read this column, so I'll just assume this is an appropriate venue for a personal letter concerning my upcoming (in five months) birthday festivities.

Dear mom and those other four people I pay to be my best friends,

As you all know, I'm turning (insert appropriately young age here) soon.

There's no need to prepare too far in advance, as I've already decided on most of the specifics.

First, the venue will be ... wait for it ... Legendary Doughnuts near Lake Tapps. Yup, read all about why here.

GO DAWGS! >>>

Zipcar is a green-ish concept that actually makes sense for a lot of people - you can rent a eco-friendly car for a couple of hours, relatively cheaply.

It's a concept that now has come to Tacoma. If you're a University of Washington-Tacoma student.

UW-T has signed on with Zipcar, and as of today students, faculty and staff can pay the $25 annual fee and then fork over seven bucks an hour or $66 a day to drive either Honda Insight hybrid or a Ford Focus.

"We look forward to partnering with Zipcar in helping our students, staff and faculty reduce their cost of living and help relieve parking congestion on campus," said Jennifer Burley, employee transportation coordinator at UW Tacoma in a press release. "Zipcar's car-sharing service also promotes the use of alternative forms of transportation to and from campus, an additional environmental benefit." 

Gas, insurance, reserved parking spots, up to 180 miles of driving per day and roadside assistance are included in the hourly and daily Zipcar rates. Cars can be reserved for as little as an hour or for multiple days.

To read up on this deal, zip here.

PLAN AHEAD >>>

You know how the marketing jingle goes. "Oh Thank Heaven for 7-Eleven." On National Coffee Day, if you let yourself ignore your rewards cards for a moment, it couldn't be truer.

Tomorrow between 7 and 11 a.m., 7-Eleven celebrates National Coffee Day with "CofFREE Day," which means the convenience store will dole out free medium cups of coffee while supplies last.

You in? How will you spend National Coffee Day?

ONLINE CHATTER >>>

Today's comment comes from Derrick in response to our restaurant listing for Babblin Babs Bistro in Tacoma's Proctor District.

Derrick writes,

Babblin Bab's is the best breakfast in Tacoma bar none. Service can be spotty, but who gives a damn, if the food is this good?

THURSDAY, SEPT. 29, 2011 >>>

1. For the always popular 26 Feet of Art (and the accompanying online auction), 26 artists have contributed a 12"x12" piece of artwork to be displayed in the Washington Center's lobby and gallery. From 5:30-9 p.m., a reception and wine tasting will get things off to a good start, kicking off the Washington Center's CenterFest Celebration 2011. The 26 Feet of Art online auction will run through Arts Walk and close Oct. 9.

2. Garfield Book Company hosts a Scandinavian Social Hour featuring a Swedish pancake-making demonstration at 6 p.m. Afterward, everyone will try to put together furniture from IKEA.

3. Oktoberbreast – a Breast Cancer Awareness Month kick-off event with the Breast Cancer Resource Center featuring educational materials, food, DJ, no host beer and wine, fire dancers and more - will happen from 6-10 p.m. at the Puyallup Fairgrounds.

4. "Imagine Tom Waits and Jack White drinking in a Romani dive bar, then haphazardly mixing DNA. That miracle baby might resemble PDX art-folk group Strangled Darlings. Using an arsenal of old-time instruments the group wades through a spooky realm of melting-pot Americana that resembles Waits' music, minus the Cookie Monster growl." The Willamette Week in Portland wrote that ditty about the Strangled Darlings, the band that will perform at 8 p.m. inside The Spar in downtown Olympia.

5. DJ Aaron Mack spins alternative 80s and beyond beginning at 9 p.m. inside The Acme Grub Cage.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Thursday Nightlife It List

WHAT WE HAVE FOUND TODAY >>>

Three-Year Deal: Tacoma School Board ratified a teacher contract in a unanimous vote. (News Tribune)

Free Coffee: Oh Thank Heaven until 11 a.m. (SPEW)

They're No Michael Scott: Coverage of the action at the 14th Annual Forklift Rodeo in downtown Tacoma. (News Tribune)

It's About Time: FDA increases cantaloupe checks. (CNN)

Hipsters On TV: A retrospective from Fonzie to "Portlandia." (Flavorwire)

Oh Good Lord: First social TV network debuts. (Koldcast)

The Office: What's the future of Dunder Mifflin. (TV Guide)

Riveting: Watch Ad-Rock from the Beastie Boys make a PB&J. (Grub Street)

Great pick-up lines in science