A listening opportunity for those that may be interested, and have a good enough connection, is available on NPR, and I'm hoping they do a better job with this adoption-related story than they did with the All Things Considered ... yeah, right ... mess on Guatemalan adoption that aired recently.

With Elizabeth Bartholet as the guest, I'm guessing it will be a fair sight fairer and a heck of a lot more informative.

The topic is Black-on-Black adoption preferences.

Heads up, new parents, about a million cribs are being recalled, so says the Consumer Product Safety Commission, after three babies died in accidents involving faulty ones.

Here's the info on specifics:

The recalled Simplicity crib models include:

Aspen 3 in 1
Aspen 4 in 1
Nursery-in-a-Box
Crib N Changer Combo
Chelsea
Pooh 4 in 1.
The recall also involves the following Simplicity-made cribs that were sold with the Graco logo:

Aspen 3 in 1
Ultra 3 in 1
Ultra 4 in 1
Ultra 5 in 1
Whitney
Trio.
The cribs have one of the following model numbers: 4600, 4605, 4705, 5000, 8000, 8324, 8800, 8740, 8910, 8994, 8050, 8750, 8760 and 8996. The numbers are on the envelope attached to the mattress support and on the label attached to the headboard.

This follows a recall of 40,000 Simplicity cribs in June after the death of one child.

And if you're in California and have older kids, know that 56,000 green canvas lunch boxes given out by the state to promote healthy eating have been found to contain lead, so if you have one, toss it.

Look for a graphic that reads: “Eat fruits and vegetables and be active.”

And, yes, they were made in China.

And speaking of China apropos nothing at all, but strangely compelling and sadly amusing nonetheless, this story of the country's former president opening the new Beijing opera house deserves some space here.

Seems Jiang Zemin considers himself quite the virtuoso ... he made Pavarotti sing with him once ... and apparently decided he would be perfect for the honor of first soloist to take the stage.

He sang some Western opera and some Eastern opera, but stayed away from Elvis, which I suppose was fitting given the venue and all.

Still in China, a recent article in the Washington Post takes a disturbing look at how Beijing's dictates on fighting HIV/AIDS may not be translating well in the provinces.

From refusing to offer HIV tests to intentional misdiagnosing, to cover-ups, the gap between the country's official position on the virus and the practical applications locally are making it impossible to gain any real footing against the disease.

The stakes are high. Experts fear that inaction by local officials in China is already contributing to spikes in the incidence of HIV-AIDS, which has spread from high-risk groups such as drug users and prostitutes to the larger public. There were 18,543 new cases of HIV reported in the first six months of this year, nearly as many as for all of last year, according to the official New China News Agency. China's estimate of 650,000 AIDS cases, among a population of 1.3 billion people, is extremely low, domestic and international AIDS groups say.

Even the judicial system is involved, as those contaminated through blood-selling scandals and such are being turned away from courts who insist that free treatment is the tradeoff.

There's a new book out with an adoption theme, and the Newsday review puts it on my 'to order' list.

Written by Ann Patchett ("The Magician's Assistant", "Bel Canto"), "Run" sounds interesting ...

"Doyle didn't mean for the family's one heirloom to pass to Sullivan, his oldest son. He meant for the statue to go to the other ones, 'the little boys,' as everyone called them." The phrase, we immediately learn, is a cover for something else. What the relatives are really thinking is the "two black adopted sons."

I love it when I have a new book to look forward to!