This is not the story for you if you get weak in the knees when seeing images of roasted or cooked meet.  And I will admit that when I was at the Empress of China Restaurant at a charity fund raiser for Project Concern International on Saturday, I was a bit surprised when the 1st course of a 10 course meal was brought out and it was a roasted Tweedy bird.

I thought I saw a Tweedy bird

Now growing up in Iowa where the only exposure that I had to the Chinese culture was the local “King Buffet” which was just a glorified Kentucky Fried Chicken with sweet and sour sauce and fortune cookies, so it stands to reason that anything short of serving up a bucket of chicken is going to send some sort of shock to my system.  I’m not saying that I didn’t eat it…I’m just saying that it was something I hadn’t done before.

The charity event was a really fun time.  They had a silent auction as well as a live auction which another event I had never been apart of.  The live auction was exciting and there was a real battle for a couple of the prizes.  The auctioneer was Mr. Brooke Sivo from Bonhams.  He very much the professional and really had the auction moving.  I got to talk to him afterwards and he told me some things about auctions that I think will inspire some new cartoons.

The band was very good too.  For being a band put together just for that event they were very tight and fun to listen to.  Overall I had a really good time and because I went with one of the organizers from the committee I was there until the very end.

My friend Ray Simon invited me to his sponcored table at the Project Concern International Helping Children & Families: Then and Now Event held at the Empress of China on Grant Street in San Francisco.  I got to sit on one of the event planning meetings that Ray also invited me to and it is a great and thoughtful group of volunteers who have an international reach.  The event is tonight and I expect that it will be a good time.

This is my first event for PCI so I hope to learn a lot about this non-profit.  Most of my support of the group has come because Ray is a good friend of mine.  I was able to provide small signs for the event which were nothing glamorous but directional signs helping people find the place where the dinner is going to be held.

Here is a video that is from PCI’s youtube channel.