What's up with the sinks in the men's restroom? One sink without a mirror and with urinal-style privacy partition thingies on either side... for privacy while you wash your hands? Is there some religion that requires you to wash your hands without any apostates laying eyes on you? Is it for people who can't wash their hands without getting water all over the people on either side of them? What's that about?

In other news: flying to New York City today. Check the date. Thanks bigots for cranking up the hate, fear, and volume. And a thought for the day (via Sullivan) from a woman whose husband died on 9/11:

What did I think about the decision to construct a "mosque" this close to ground zero? I thought it was a no-brainer. Of course it should be built there. I sometimes wonder if those people fighting so passionately against Park51 can fathom the diversity of those who died at ground zero. Do we think no Muslims died in the towers? My husband, Eddie Torres, killed on his second day of work at Cantor Fitzgerald while I was pregnant with our first child, was a dark-skinned Latino, often mistaken for Pakistani, who came here illegally from Colombia. How did "9/11 victim" become sloppy shorthand for "white Christian"?

...

But here is what's been lost in this Park51 controversy: We are not experts, we are victims. We deserve to speak up, we need to speak up to acknowledge the pain and suffering, but we were never meant to be leaders in a national debate. Because the only thing we really know intimately is grief. The only thing we really know is what it feels like to lose a loved one in 9/11.

How did 9/11 become shorthand for "white Christian"? How'd that happen?

Gee, who was it that snuck so much darn controversy into 9/11 and messed up our remembering like that?