Cheer

Labor Day weekend is here and people all over the country are celebrating the unofficial end of summer and start of fall. Here’s to the cooler nights ahead, the football games, bonfires and back to school.

The highways will be jammed with holiday travelers this weekend, AAA says, thanks in large part to gasoline prices at a 12-year low.

According to AAA, 86 percent of the 35.5 million Americans expected to travel this weekend intended to drive to the beach. Hurricane Hermine, which struck Florida late early Friday and headed up the Atlantic Coast, will put a crimp on that estimate. But many undaunted travelers will simply alter their destination, or their departure and arrival times to get around the massive storm.

The skies likely will be crowded, too. Airlines are planning their busiest weekend of the year with 2.23 million air travels nationwide.

Those who stay home might have the best time. The forecast for Western Pennsylvania is sunny skies, light breezes and warm temperatures.

And lest we forget, Labor Day marks the unofficial start of the political campaign season. Vice President Joe Biden will speak at 9 a.m. in Pittsburgh before the start of the Labor Day parade. Tim Kaine, the Democratic nominee who hopes to be Biden’s successor, also will speak.

Some of us might marvel with a sense of self-importance over the loftiness of the dignitaries who would spend their holiday campaigning for our votes.

The rest of us will be at the beach, God and Hermine willing.

Jeer

Is this any way to run a contest? Officials at the Philadelphia Zoo are wishing for a do-over.

In their excitement of ushering a baby gorilla into the world, folks at the Philly Zoo jumped the gun when they announced a public contest to name it.

The don’t even know the western lowland gorilla’s gender yet. The mother, Honi, has not relaxed her grip long enough for anyone to determine whether the days-old offspring is a boy or girl.

They probably should have waited at least until they had determined the gender. Instead, the zoo officials announced on Twitter that there would be a naming contest but did not include any details.

That drew scores of replies, nearly all of them suggesting the name Harambe, the name of the gorilla that died three months ago in the Cincinnati Zoo. Keepers were forced to shoot Harambe after a 3-year-old boy crawled into Harambe’s enclosure.

Harambe’s death touched many, especially those who work in zoos. But the tragedy also resulted in the creation of satirical memes — cartoon depictions putting Harambe’s likeness on the dollar bill or Mount Rushmore. Cincinnati Zoo issued a statement condemning the memes, which made a farce of Harambe’s memory.

On Wednesday, Philadelphia Zoo officials had to clarify on social media that they will preselect names and host the contest on the zoo’s website.

Harambe is not likely to be one of the choices.

Cheer

Happy 10th wedding anniversary wishes to Dr. Darren Machak and Ashleigh Machak. The Renfrew couple celebrated their anniversary with a mission trip, volunteering at a medical clinic in the rural northeast corner of Haiti.

Darren, a general practitioner with Butler Medical Associates, and Ashleigh traveled last month with the Rev. Jim Lewis, pastor of the Karns City and Chicora United Methodist churches and others on Lewis’ second trip to the village of Mombin Crochu this year.

They worked in a village clinic with a Haitian doctor and an interpreter. They made trips to neighboring villages to see patients who could not come to Mombin Crochu.

Haiti is one of the most impoverished countries in the Western Hemisphere — hardly an anniversary vacation destination.

That’s why the Machaks are not likely to forget how they spent their 10th.