diversity, need to get the hell out. [applause] >> i have one more performer. can you believe that? i am so excited. he is a very kind man to be here. he's a total icon. tales of the city. his book that was made do a city. he's here on his book tour. thank you very much. well, i would not have missed this evening for anything. you and i both know these things can be boring.

not tonight. i like to read, since i'm back home from a tour. i would like to read the chapter that my editor wanted me to remove. i have to set it up for you. michael toliver is 55 years old. they have gone to florida because his mother has died. and they have been out to the rest home, to the bear bar in

orlando. they meet a black bear, that is a husky african-american guy and the guy basically propositions them. proposes a three way. they decided he seems like a great guy. they tell him about their b and b. the innamong the flowers. it doesn't mean anything because it was camouflage night

at the full moon saloon. we felt compelled to tidy up. and reaging toilet. you force him to shower. we stashed it in the closet. he grabbed a razor and headed for the stall. you better be faithful about it. it's down right inhospitable. he was dressed in a while,

v-neck tee shirt. nothing. just wondering about the dress code. where your dress pants. you look hot in those. did you see my ring? i swear you would lose your head if it wasn't attached. this was my mother. i wondered if her death would release me or if i was doomed to norman bates territory. he will be here in five minutes. half an hour later, after i squeezed.

we were awkward as wall flowers. the lamp was already blazing with intensity. my growing hard on >> he seemed amenable. he got cold feet? may be he lost interest. ben shrugged. who knows. i would be with us in the second. i am serious. don't you feel abandoned. it's a three way honey, i don't think two people can feel abandoned. he might be late. i looked at the clock again.

25 minutes. only hustlers can get away with that. he's not a hustler? ben turned and looked at me. you think i bought us a hustler? how pathettic tic do you think we are? >> i sort of felt like he targeted us. i didn't get that sense. may be i'm wrong. ben smiled. you are disappointed. no , i said, no just annoyed. he pulled down the waist band. i don't need a mercy suck. he looked up.

mercy suck. whatever. undeterred ben got down to business. mercy i said, there was when mr. johnson knocked on the door. you may have figured it out by now. to us, he was still the great dark man. a mythical man or object to desire. it was probably why we jumped to attention. jesus. tucking the incriminating evidence. wait. let this go down first. >> why? i don't know. seems rude. ben widened his eyes at me.

did you learn that from miss manners. i hid myself. this probably made me look grand. that somehow seemed preferable. men opened the door. he was standing there. i'm sorry fellows. come on in. our visitor shot a quick glance. can we get you something to drink? remaining seated. there's a soda machine. no thanks. did you have a hard time finding us. i'm michael i said. finally standing. this is ben. he shook our hands.

i'm patrees. i am worried that it might make me squirm. i found it hospitable. that it put he more at easy. we're glad you came. patrice smiled. ben caught my guy. he began to rearrange the

forskin. it seemed to swell. when he removed it, he said, i open it's okay. i'm sort of a kiss pig. no problem. as i caught my breath. ben removed. he reported getting a big laugh. i should tell you something. i am used to this moment arising. i tried to make it easier for him. we always play safe. so it's something else. we waited for the penny to drop. i do your momma's hair.

this simply did not compute. ben looked up at him completely open mouthed. what he murmured. i do his momma's hair. in this moment of raw revelation. the obvious pride she showed in her new hair dresser. i thought you were a woman. how did you about who we were? >> she has a picture of y'all in her room. y'all by waterfall.

she talks about you all the time. jesus said ben. what are the chances of this? patrice shrugged. why didn't you say something earlier? they ain't going to happen with your momma in the conversation. i liked the way he naild that down. i felt bad about it later. i almost didn't come. i need a break from here and it might as well be y'all. how often does he get her hair done. i do her make up too. you cover up the blue.

she has emphysema. she got to worrying about it. it must have been lennor. she looks really good. i like to work on old ladies. no one objected. he pulled me closer. within seconds he had us both in hand. like an eager barby doll.

sorry. every now and then, my own visuals overwhelm me. then he went down on both. i can understand why my editor didn't want this. then we went down, never neglecting either one of us. ben pulled my face into his and kissed me. in a three way, there's always the danger of being left out. i never felt unwelcome on the ride. by the time we were naked, by the time i shot my load, i rolled it on to patrice.

he came on all fours. never touches himself. i know because i was under neath, catching the flash. ben stayed there. his heart beating hard. then my cell phone rang. it's programmed to ring like an old 40's ring. leave it said ben. from the middle of the panting stack of men. nobody move said ben. there was a brief silent. or at least when i do. sorry. that's okay said ben.

patrice rolled off the bed. then he flickinged it into the toilet. what's this? his head was on my which of the now. that's an orchid. it keeps coming back. one with of those extra touches that mean a lot. he stared down at this offering. it don't look right somehow. i know. especially with a condom on it. he cleaned up at the sink. he started gathering up his

clothes. hang with us for a while. busy day tomorrow. >> my other job, bacheloret party. i strip for private parties. that's what this is for. he was stepping into his fatigues. apparently impressed. it ain't worth the bus fair half the time. patrice shrubbed. if a sister has a plate of

ribs, there's no way to held her attention. ben and i laughed. i'm serious. tickled to his response. i am up there working my ass off and they are sitting down there with their press on nails. tough crowd. they say they like the mens, he drew out the last. but they don't like the mens like the mens. they don't tip as good either. he came to the bed until we came his naked book ends. he laid there for a while.

be well my brothers. he said at the door. [applause]

>> i honor each and every one of you for coming out to the library on saturday afternoon to have a discussion on this important topic. who used personal care products?

shampoo, face cream, deodorant, contact solution? the numbers could be staggering. the stories that i tell in the book and stories i talk about today are store reus about all of us. to tell you a little bit about my personal story. i was a 17 magazine makeup reading desperate to read in. with each careful purchase, i was one step closer to that girl i dreamed up. i used lots of them, 20 products a day, makeup, skin creams, an enormous cloud of

aqua net hair spray. this is the back in the days of big hair and shoulder pads and bright makeup. i looked up all these products as a teen, 20 products a day, i was surprised to discover, i had been with exposing myself to 200 products a day before i got on the school bus. what is in this stuff that we put on our bodies, put in our hair on a daily basis. that is what we have been working on and looking at for about the passed 5 years. these are the groups involved in the campaign for safe products. most poplar brands of all kinds of products, deodor rants, makeups, even baby shampoos

contain chemicals that are toxic that get into our system. most of these chemicals, um, come from oil by-products, petroleum. this is true of the high end brands like cliniq ue. we know they are toxic, animal studies show they lead to certain health effects. it is okay because there is just a little bit of toxic chemical and you can't prove it causes harm. so of course, as we pointed out, none of us used this product today. here is a run down of my beauty

routine, some of the things i was supposed to, 40 hormone chemicals, 17 carcinogens, 17 penetration chemicals. they draw others more deeply into the property. 16 toxins, less than 50 percent of my chemicals has been assessed by any publically accountable institutions. there are no government requirements for us to understand these chemicals. we have a lot of information about some of them. most of them have never been -- the combined mixtures of a developing teenager saying day after day year after year. there is a lot we don't know. what do know there is a tremendous amount of scientific evidence that showing low doses

of chemical exposures can interfere with hormones, change the way our genomes for diseases that come down the long. most important time of development in the womb, teenagers developing. we also know that disease chronic disease is meaning chemicals are on the rise, breast cancers. who knows a young cancer or family member that has breast cancer, infertilities, testicular cancer. there is a lot of evidence showing environmental pollutants are part of the reason. so we see that there is a lot of cause for concerns and the trends um, cause us to look at

these chemicals and say what is going on here. we know from the science that chemicals are ending up where they are not supposed to be and that is inside of our bodies. scientists can measure the chemicals getting into us, bio measuring. this is from the first chapter, indecent exposure, the intimate details. charlotte was surprised by the test results. mother of 2 among the first people to be tested for a wide range of industrial chemicals. test revealed that her body contained mercury lead

cosmetics. i felt violated charlotte reported. she was upset about the pesticide. i never used them in my house, never on my lawn. i bought organic whenever i could. her body contained several variations of organic chlorines designed to attack nervous systems of insects. i never bought it. isn't that trespassing. i tell this in my story of mary broon. mary never felt called to be an environmentalist she was nursing her 6 month daughter olivia and a story had been done by texas tech where they

looked at breast milk samples, all were contaminated with rocket fuel. i was stunned, i thought breast milk was as pure as it came for food source. i was up all night thinking about it. i tell the story about michelle from california whose family was the first family to be monitored in the oakland tribune. it stunned even scientists. the tests found many of the same chemicals they found in charlotte's 5-year-old mic ala, she had recently spent a lot of time in nail salons. the biggest surprise of what they found in 2-year-old

rowland, chemicals found in nearly anyone else in the world 6 times higher than in parents, twice the levels that researchers see in land animals. this is a serious warning said a scientist researchers on flame retar tkapbts. young children are exposed because they put their hands in their mouth and bodies don't eliminate chemicals as readily. to me i think very historically crystallizes what we are learning. that was a story in 2006 by the environmental working group where they analyzed the