A Gay Pioneer Dies

Barbara Gittings, a lesbian activist from the 1950s and onward, has died at 75.

Long before Stonewall, Gittings was one of a handful of gay Americans who started leading a community out of a dark veil of fear and shame. With Frank Kameny, she helped get the American Psychiatric Association to drop homosexuality from its list of mental disorders.

Obit here (via Andrew)

I never met Gittings, but I have met and done some work with Frank Kameney. I expect she harbored the same defiance and inner spirit and (I do not use this overused term lightly) pride. If you ever meet a revolutionary it's hard to forget that experience. At a time when many in our community think of actors, pop stars or models as "leaders" in the gay cause, it's sad to see the passing of a true giant. Sadder still that many younger gays will meet the news with, "who was she?" Although I hope many will use news of her death to learn more about the people who laid the groundwork evertyhing that's positive in the community today.

A good book, btw, on gay history in the 20th century, is this one.

Counterfeit Man

Richard Cohen sticks it to Mitt Romney today, calling him a counterfeit man, saying :

If he were a coin, a vending machine would spit him out.

I think the voters will ultimately spit him out, too. But Cohen's larger point, that our system allows extremists on both sides (the radical right for the GOP, unions for the Dems "economic pressure groups like teacher's unions" -- although in 2007-8 I would argue the fringe on the left is the Move-On-Out of Iraq-now crowd) to dictate who the nominees would be.

In playing that game, Cohen points out, Romney is showing his true cynical self. Concluding, he writes:

Since all politicians, like lovers and mattress salesmen, lie a bit, we do not expect purity. But Romney has taken things too far. I don't know whether he has any respect for himself, but he sure as hell has none for us.

NASA Image of the Day

This is the "Eskimo Nebula." You may ask, why do you post these pictures (in other words, you keep writing about naked Harry Potter but you have yet to post his picture here!)?

I post these pictures because it is a reminder that the universe is vast and beautiful and the things we blog about are infinitely small. I post them as a reminder that the race of homo sapiens is just now barely sticking our toes into the cosmic water.

And yet...I wonder. There's a wonderful line in Moby Dick where Ahab says (if memory serves), "Come, let me look into a human eye. Far better than to gaze upon God or sea or sky." There's something to that too.

Here's what NASA says about the "Eskimo Nebula:"

In 1787, astronomer William Herschel discovered the Eskimo Nebula, which from the ground resembles a person's head surrounded by a parka hood. In 2000, the Hubble Space Telescope imaged the nebula that displays gas clouds so complex they are not fully understood. The Eskimo Nebula is clearly a planetary nebula, and the gas seen above composed the outer layers of a sun-like star only 10,000 years ago. The inner filaments visible above are being ejected by strong wind of particles from the central star. The outer disk contains unusual light-year long orange filaments.

Image credit: NASA/Andrew Fruchter (STScI)

"Running Around Naked"

My friend (if I may call him that) and fellow blogger Christopher Scott Sarno used the phrase with regard to actor Daniel Radcliffe nude appearance in Equus "running around naked on stage."

I find that phrase -- which everyone uses -- interesting. I find that when I'm naked I don't move any differently than I do when clothed. I certainly don't feel a need when dropping trou to start running.

And, I think, nudity is a good thing. I don't belong to any clubs for such purposes, but I do enjoy going to nude beaches, particularly Sandy Hook State Park in New Jersey, where it's legal and quite popular. People often say that people who get publicly nude shouldn't -- because they don't have the "right" body for it -- but they're missing the point. You don't go to a nude beach to look at people, you go to enjoy the beach and the water naturally (is there anything more silly than wearing a bathing suit?).

I remember when seeing the New York production of Naked Boys Singing (the DC production was awful) that after the novely wore off I was much more focused on the singer's faces than body (really). The human body is indeed beautiful and I do enjoy looking at the male form but I think clothes often become a distraction and once removed our mind's relax to the perception of the person as a whole.

Romney Backs Don't Ask Don't Tell

He says this:

" 'Don't ask, don't tell' has worked well"

By what fuzzy-headed standard can you make this claim, Mitt?


Haven't you heard of the military's shortage of Arabic and Farsi translators? And this fact (from SLDN):

According to the Government Accountability Office, the Pentagon has dismissed more than 300 language experts under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” including more than 55 who were fluent in Arabic.

If you're going to pander to the religious right, try to do it a bit more artfully than this.

Buses Behaving Badly

In less than a week three people in DC have been struck and killed by DC metrobuses.

Why?

Because DC Metro bus drivers drive dangerously. They aggressively cut other motorists (and bicyclists) off. They run lights. They drive too fast on narrow streets. They block lanes when discharging passengers when they could easily pull all the way to the curb. They block intersections.

As someone who bikes daily on DC's city streets, I've often thought if I'm ever in an accident it will likely involve a pedestrian who steps out between two parked cars to cross in the middle of a street or a metrobus.

Oh, and from the news story about the latest accident:

Lt. John Kutniewski, who oversees the police department's major crash unit, could not say immediately whether the parking lanes on Congress Street had been completely cleared of ice and snow and said the investigation is continuing.

The streets are not clear of snow and ice and have not been for a week, making narrow streets narrower. DC Mayor Fenty's failure to get the streets cleared have made commuting much more dangerous.

Happy Lunar New Year

The LTR and I were near China town today and decided to go buy replacement Chinese soup spoons for the ones he had broken. Probably not a good day to do that, given it was the Chinese New Year. This was the scene in the store:















We happened to catch DC Mayorlicious Fenty giving a speech to the crowd assembled (which was mostly of European descent, like the cute guy in the foreground):















Fortunately the Mayor managed to avoid cliche by quoting Confucius.

Naked Harry

A lot has been made of Daniel Radcliffe (aka Harry Potter, in case you've been under a rock the past decade) going nude in a play in London.

I'm not posting his picture here (he's 17!!). Nor am I going to give him kudos for going nude, as some have done. If his goal was to "lose his Harry Potter innocence" by letting his business hang out on stage, well, then it's a stunt.

But, if he took the character -- nudity and all -- because it was compelling and different from Harry AND he is able to pull it off with good acting (i.e., when watching the play you didn't think, "oh, there's Harry Potter naked" but took the nudity as part of the drama and character) then kudos to him.

One of my favorite actors, Ewan McGregor, frequently does nude scenes in his movies and I admit I find him excessively attractive. But what makes his better movies notable is not his nudity but his ability to become the character he is playing. If Mr. Radcliffe can pull that off he will have a great career.

(And if he can do it nude, well, that's just a bonus).

My Superhero Match

Actually, I'd prefer Keifer Sutherland Jack Bauer.

Gay Powerlifting

My partner (the LTR) is a competitive powerlifter. In fact, he won the silver in his weight class at the Gay Games in Chicago last summer and set the bench press record in his weight class in Virginia last year. Yes, I'm proud!

He's gearing up for a competition later this winter and I'm reminded of the first competition I went to with him in Savannah, GA.

To say that testosterone is ozing off the walls would be no exaggeration. The competitors sniff amonia before a lift (at first I thought everyone was doing poppers). After a lift they lunge up to their buddies and they thump each other's chests as they shout "huh!" Because their singlets are so tight they have to put talcum powder on their bodies to get them on so as they chest-thump clouds of "smoke" seem to smoulder off their bodies.

The LTR doesn't engage in any of these theatrics (although he has a whole "bench positioning ceremony" he employs before a lift). So here I was witnessing all this unabashed male cockiness at this first competition. I was on the edge of my seat as the LTR was disqualified for his first two bench press attempts (for bad form). If he missed his third he would be out of the competition. But, on his third try, he nailed it!

He came sauntering up to me in the bleachers, and I stood to greet him, puffed my chest out and made ready to chest thump and get thumped. Instead he walked up to me, and eyes welling up, said, "Honey, I just feel so emotional."

So, the gay powerlifters get hugs, not chest thumps, after a lift.

More on gay powerlifters here.

Chris Morgan, a well-known Brit powerlifter, has a great website, chunky muscle.

NJ to Recognize Gay Marriages from Elsewhere

The skinny:

"Gay couples who are married in Massachusetts, Canada or other places where same-sex marriage is allowed will have all the rights of married people in New Jersey as of Monday, the state Attorney General's Office decided Friday."

Mayorlicious, are you listening? You promised in your campaign to release a memo from the former attorney general which is rumored to support the same policy. You've been in office over a month. Why the delay?

The Internet is for Porn -- Part II

One of two amusing songs from Ave. Q.

The Internet is for Porn

Oh What the Heck

Here's Mathieu...I'm trying to avoid posting pics of models but I found him too irresitable. (via Casual in Istanbul)

Connecting the Dots in Monty County

WashBlade editor Kevin Naff connects the dots between a tragedy and an outrage happening in Montgomery County, a neighboring county to DC in Maryland.

The tragedy is the apparent double suicides ofRachel Crites and Rachel Smith, two Mont. Co. teens who went missing and then were found dead in a car in the woods, from carbon monoxide poisoning. Crites' father released a diary entry by his daughter that said:

“Wherever I end up laying, whether buried or cremated, I want to stay with my true love, buried next to her. This is my choice. I’m sorry.”

And now the outrage: conservative groups in Mont. County are pressing the state board of education to overturn Mont. County's recently adopted gay-inclusive sex ed curriculum. The conservative groups include PFOX, Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays, who recently were distributing flyers at Mont. Co. schools about "quashing" same sex attractions.

Concludes Naff:

We don’t know if “the Rachels” were romantically involved or if they were ever exposed to PFOX’s message. But there’s no doubt that other teens in Montgomery County who are in the process of sorting out their sexual identity are subjected to the “ex-gay” myth in their schools.

These anti-gay crusaders have no shame. County officials should denounce their efforts and fight the curriculum appeal to its defeat. Let us hope something positive can come from this horrific tragedy and that other young people feeling alone and confused will find understanding and compassion from adults in their community instead of hateful and reckless propaganda.

PFOX: This isn't about opposing the "gay agenda." It's not about scripture. It's about teen age lives. Get it?

Fighting for His Deceased Partner's Final Wishes

A gay Baltimore man is fighting the parents of his late partner, Russel Groff. Groff specified in his will he wished to be buried in Tennessee. His parents lost an initial case to move the body to their family cemetery and are now appealing.

Quote of note, from Meredith Curtis of the American Civil Liberties Union, regarding the case:

“Certainly, we think that Mr. Olive’s [Groff's partner] case exemplifies all the myriad problems that can result when the law treats gay partners as legal strangers,” she said, “when in fact they’re not strangers at all.”

There's that term again "legal stranger." I've been on the receiving end of it, from a judge talking about me and our son.

The lack of legal recognition of gay families hurts real people, as in this case.

Friday Hottie of the Week

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Backpacking

The LTR and I are making a return to backpacking, after 10 years of not doing it. We used to backpack extensively in the Shenandoah...then we bought a boat (well, actually, I bought a boat and then we fought about it for a number of years until we finally got to the point where we could both enjoy it...about which time we both got so busy that we rarely had time to take it out. So we sold it a few years ago).

Since selling the boat we've enjoyed a return to hiking a lot but we usually stay in PATC cabins.

Now we're planning a trip to Peru, which includes a four day backpacking trip on the Inca Trail, so we thought we'd start backpacking here at home to start getting ready.

So last weekend we went and bought a new tent and packs and other paraphernalia. This weekend we're going camping on Assateague Island, a barrier island off the coast of Maryland. Yes, it will be cold. But we are rugged men. Besides, we can cuddle at night.

I decided to set up the new tent tonight to make sure everything was in working order. It filled our living room.

A Navajo Education

I have a small but unique connection to the Navajo. My sister-in-law Louise is a Navajo, married to the LTR's older brother.

Louise's older sister, a teacher in the Navajo Nation in Arizona, was in town this week for the National Indian Educator's Association legislative conference. She got in touch with the LTR (who she had only met once, at his niece's high school graduation) and he invited her over for dinner. Which happened last night.

Along the way to dinner Louise's sister Marie invited another teacher friend and her principal. All three teach at a K-7 school in the middle of the Res. While here they met with staff of their Congressional delegation and met with Rep. Patrick Kennedy.

I was impressed by their passion and dedication to education. I've been involved professionally in bringing "real people" to Washington to do what they were doing but have never known anyone personally who did it -- nor have ever known anyone who did it because of their passion and not because it was more or less expected by their boss.

Their visit gave me renewed hope in our education system. If there are people like those three in our schools, there is hope.

There was also an interesting subtext given that these three were entering an openly gay household. The LTR was nervous about this and consulted his brother and sister-in-law before extending the invitation, making sure that there wouldn't be a problem because we are gay.

There wasn't.

Since last night, I've googled "gay Navajo" and have come across evidence of a nascent but visible GLBT Navajo community, and a complicated portrait of traditional Navajo (and Native American) views of homosexuality vs. acculturated views. Like this one. It's an interesting story.

The best thing about last was the invitation Marie extended to Dave to visit her on the reservation. And she made a point to turn to me and say, "you too, Scott."

After all, we're family.

Hardaway Hates Gays

What causes this? It goes beyond mere prejudice -- I could understand a "pre-judgement" that all gay men are sissies, for example. I don't understand the hatred. At its root is insecurity, I'm sure. I just don't understand why a successful straight man like Hardaway (ironic last name, given the circumstances) would be so insecure. Unless he's got some feelings for men deep down he is too frightened to face.

Mixed Reviews

for Mayorlicious. And my street has still not been plowed, two days after the storm started.

Swelling Up Here

God I feel like a slug! Between weather and work I haven't been able to ride my bike or go to the gym. And tonight the LTR and I threw a dinner party (more on that tomorrow) and I am stuffed to the gills. Purge! Purge! (I'm supposed to go to "shirtless night" tomorrow!)

Anti-Valentine's Day

A contrarian view.

Happy Valentine's Day

To partners and friends everywhere.

DC Slow to Dig Out

Usually within 24 hours of a snow storm the DC mayor's office announces that all major roads and some secondary have been plowed or treated. Thus far silence from the Fenty administration.

The LTR (who drove to work this morning) said that as of 7 am Connecticut Ave. had not seen a plow. If Conn. Ave is not a major road in DC, nothing is.

This is my street, which surely most qualify as a major secondary road, connecting, as it does, DC neighborhoods Adams Morgan with Columbia Heights and Howard University. It was taken at 8 am, and as of 9:30 am still has not seen a snow truck.

UPDATE: As of 4:15, this street is still unplowed.

UPDATE: 8:45 pm. Still not plowed.

An ATM for the Democrats

Former DNC staffer Donald Hitchcock, who was fired from his position as Director of the DNC Gay and Lesbian Leadership Council by DNC Chair Howard Dean when his partner wrote a letter critical of the party, notes in a letter to the Washington Blade that:

After attending the recent Democratic National Committee LGBT Caucus meeting, it reaffirmed for me my reasons for standing up to Howard Dean’s reluctance to treat our community with dignity and respect, an action for which I was fired. I claim that firing as a badge of honor.

Dean barely addressed the LGBT caucus with only five minutes worth of comments and he took no questions from the floor. And unfortunately, his talking points had shifted from the comprehensive plan to address the anti-LGBT state ballot measures offered last year to throwing only “a little bit of money” into the states at the end of the fight...

...At the meeting, gay finance staff and key fundraisers did sit at the caucus table, as before, but what is different is that lately we seem to be treated solely as an ATM for the party, with our civil rights seeming an afterthought or burden.

Romney Sommersaults In

Well, the flip-flopper is in.

What will be interesting now to watch is whether Rudy will also kowtow to the radical religious right and retract his moderate social positions a la Romeny, or hold firm and try and win them over with his credentials on the war on terrorism. I'm not holding my breath, but one can always hope.

Video of Skydiver's Fall After Chute Malfunctions

He survives and lives to show the video from his helmet camera.

Video here on the Sunday Mail Website

Pretty gripping stuff. Right before he hits, he says, "Oh shit, I'm dead. Bye."

Gay (former) Basketball Player Take II

Cleveland Plain Dealer Columnist Bud Shaw echoes a point I made earlier about newly out former NBA athlete John Amaechi. Quote of note:

Bravery in this context is reserved for the first athlete to come out today and go to practice tomorrow. It's not coming out from across the pond - Amaechi lives in England - four years after retirement.

That's not a slam of Amaechi. Those are rough waters to recommend for anyone.
No doubt he feels he has something important to say in retrospect. But his words could have made a far greater impact as an active player who demanded to be treated like any other person in his workplace.

Amen. The real heroes are the gay men and women who quietly and simply "come out" and live their lives with the expectation to be treated like everyone else -- and without the expectation they'll get book royalties for it. Yes, I'm glad Amaechi came out, but I'll be gladder still when just the mere fact of being gay doesn't warrant a book deal. From what I've read, he didn't get the deal based on his talent on the court.

So, meanwhile, America waits for the first non-retired major league player of any sport to come out. Derek Jeter (bottom lower right), it's not too late.

For the background on this pic (all shirtless MLB shortstops) go here.

The Government Closes

It's supposed to get a little icy. Thus far, my street is covered in a slick sheet of slush. The "Winter Storm" thus far has generally done what they predicted, just a lot less of it.

Note to Mayor Fenty -- this neighborhood hasn't seen a salt truck all day.

"Snow Event"

This is the snow event so far in Washington ...pretty tame stuff so far but the Capital of the Free World is a big wuss when it comes to snow. If the terrorists wanted to do us serious harm they'd forget dirty bombs and drop a foot of snow here.

Actually, it's supposed to turn to freezing rain and it could become an "ice event." My god, the schools will be closed until May.

Lincoln and the Telegraph

Good piece in today's WaPo about Lincoln and the telegraph.

The Lincoln - Obama Connection

Like so many before him, Barak Obama is trying to wrap the mantle of Lincoln around him, more so as a "gangly" Illinois legislator.

The Barak-Lincoln comparison is facile at best. Both served in the Illinois legislature, although Lincoln was a Representative and Obama was a Senator. Lincoln lost his race for the U.S. Senate, the seat Obama now holds. And Lincoln only served two years as a federal Representative, which Obama has surpassed.

Obasma was born to a well educated family of means, Lincoln was born to abject poverty, hardship and loss, losing both his mother and his sister before the age of 12. Obama received higher education from two of our nation's most prestigious schools, Columbia University and Harvard, Lincoln had little to no formal education and was a self-taught man.

But the most important difference is this: Obama is leading the left wing of his party, while Lincoln strove to unite radical and conservative wings of the nascent GOP, and his success in doing so propelled him to the White House and is what kept the North together. Then, as now, the country was divided by extremists on both sides. Lincoln governed from the center.

And that does not appear to be in Obama's playbook.

In short...I knew Abraham Lincoln, Abe Lincoln was a friend of mine...

The Kid Likes Football

I posted last Sunday of my disdain for football, the Superbowl and other organized sports.

Unfortunately, it's not genetic. My son (all of two-and-a-half) was, according to his mother, mesmerized by the Superbowl. And not the commercials, because when they would come on he would cry, "More football! More football!"

Yes, it's cute, but...I can count on one hand the number of times I've thrown a football. I can't count on any hand the number of times the football went where I wanted it, because how do you count "zero?"

It's already hard enough with him growing up 7,000 miles away, how do I relate to him challenged by distance and divergent interests?

Ironic -- I felt inadequate as a kid because I didn't share my father's interests, now I feel inadequate because my son has interests I don't share. There should be a remedial course in catch for gay dads with sports-inspired sons.

But, it's not about me. I'm thrilled he's finding things in life (whatever they are) that catch his interest. I love seeing his personality blossom. I'll never forget the first time -- as a newborn -- he focused on me and his eyes locked on mine and we connected. Although, yes, I harbor fear of how our realtionship will develop, I also feel confident that we will share a unique bond.

And, while watching the football game he announced the action, saying, "two men running, men fall down, men push other men!"

Well, he's commenting on men. That's something I can relate to.

Here he is, watching the Superbowl. Pic courtesy of his mom.

Snow Storm Coming?

Possible significant snow is in the forecast for DC for Tuesday. The weather page at channel 7 says:

Will the snow situation be like the President Day storm of 2003?
The models are trying to zero in on the forecast.

"The models are trying to zero in on the forecast." Do you ever wonder who these models are? I did a little investigating. What I found may surprise you, but explain why the weather forecasts are so often whacky. Here are the models our weather forecasters use:

Gay Commercials

David Paul Robinson has posted a collection of gay TV commercials. My favorite is below. If you click over to see the rest, be sure to look at the one titled "Dance" for the most poignant.

And I must say the rubber gloves in this commercial has inspired my overactive imagination.

So HE'S Behind it All

Inventing the Internet was a hard act to follow...

Friday Hottie of the Week

Better late than never...Jonathan Rhys Meyers as King Henry VIII (after the Atkins Diet) in the upcoming Showtime series. A preview below.

A Volcano from Space

This is what a volcano from space looks like. Courtesy of NASA:

At 3:00 p.m. Alaska Daylight Time on May 23, 2006, Flight Engineer Jeff Williams from International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 13 contacted the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) to report that the Cleveland Volcano had produced a plume of ash. Shortly after the activity began, he took this photograph. This picture shows the ash plume moving west-southwest from the volcano’s summit. A bank of fog (upper right) is a common feature around the Aleutian Islands. The event proved to be short-lived; two hours later, the plume had completely detached from the volcano. The AVO reported that the ash cloud height could have been as high as 6,000 meters (20,000 feet) above sea level.

Former NBA Player Comes Out

Former NBA center John Amaechi has announced he's gay and he's written a book about it.

Yay.

Now, I must admit I don't think I've ever watched an NBA game and the only center I'm really familiar with is the one inside a jelly donut. Still, I'm always happy when a closeted gay man comes out. And someone like Amaechi, masculine, athletic and famous among people who pay attention to NBA games will prove to be a good role model for gay kids.

But I would hardly call Amaechi's coming out "brave." It would have been really brave of him to come out while still in the NBA, at a risk to his fame and career, as opposed to using his fame to come out and get a book deal. Coming out before retiring would have made him a true pioneer and made his book worth reading. As it is, it sounds like his book will follow the same tired trajectory of Billy Bean's, a former major league baseball player who came out after he left the sport:

In his book, Amaechi describes the challenge of being gay in a league where it's assumed all players are heterosexual. He describes the blatant anti-gay language and attitudes he experienced in NBA locker rooms.

No kidding.

One other quote in the WaPo story about Amaechi caught my attention:

"With teammates you have to be trustworthy, and if you're gay and you're not admitting that you are, then you are not trustworthy," James said. "So that's like the No. 1 thing as teammates _ we all trust each other. You've heard of the in-room, locker room code. What happens in the locker room stays in there. It's a trust factor, honestly. A big trust factor."

Hmm. Which makes me wonder, "what really goes on in those locker rooms?" I may read Amaechi's book after all.

Senate Games Part II

So it appears that the GOP Senate advocates of an anti-surge non-binding resolution will hold up other legislation until they get a vote on their anti-war resolution.

Meaning, the Senate won't do anything until they vote on a bill that won't do anything.

Where have all the serious people gone?

The Voice of Walt Whitman

You can hear gay American poet Walt Whitman reading his poem America here.

Remarkable. A gay icon...a contemporary of Abraham Lincoln. Suddenly alive. Fulfilling his prophesy:

Come, said my Soul,
Such verses for my Body let us write, (for we are one,)
That should after death I invisibly return...
Ever with pleas'd smile I may keep on...

If Ted Haggard's Not Gay

...after three weeks of "intensive counselling," then fellow blogger Scott at Reality Cubed has decided he can renounce his "tall identified lifestyle:"

Sure I'm 6'3" but I no longer identify myself as tall. Please do not address me as such.

The power of Jesus has convinced me that not only is my former "tall lifestyle" wrong, it's bad for society.

In short, NOBODY IS BORN TALL!

Read the whole thing here.

He's inspired me. I am no longer identifying as a brown-eyed, middle-aged white gay male. I'm now identifying as Turkish model Burak Ozcivit:

Sanctity of Marriage Watch

Last Sunday's WaPo magazine included vignettes from Washingtonians about what makes life in the nation's capital so unique. Like fans at a Nationals game getting more worked up over spotting Alan Greenspan and wife Andrea Mitchell in their section than seeing Tommy Lasorda. And this one:

In the fall of 1995 , I used my recently acquired college degree to land a fabulously low-paying job for a public relations firm. The company specialized in planning events for corporations wanting to influence Capitol Hill decision makers. As employees, we were expected to make each interaction memorable and always put our guests first.

During one spectacular party, I was asked to chat with the invitees while they waited to receive their name tags. When a good-looking gentleman approached the line, I flashed a smile and said my obligatory welcome. We spoke a few moments, he received his name tag, and I went back to greeting and smiling, moving from guest to guest.

Later that evening, the gentleman pulled me aside and told me I had made quite an impression. He leaned in and whispered, "I look forward to hearing from you." Simultaneously, he slipped me his card, with a number handwritten on the back. I understood clearly the reason he wanted me to call. And being young, single and curious, I wanted to know more about this man I had so impressed. I looked into it. Turns out he was one of the wealthiest men in Congress, with a wife and three children.

My guess: He also probably voted for the Defense of Marriage Act.

Undergear

The Under Gear catalogue (underwear for men with body fat measured in negative numbers)(and low body fat doesn't seem to be the only criteria judging by other certain attributes if you know what I mean and I think you do) arrived today. Many fascinating items of appearal. Like this one -- the high rise running short. High rise indeed.







This outfit also caught my attention. But does anyone really wear this stuff?

Haggard: "Not Gay"

At least, that's what the reports say.

Me either. Nope. No way. Not me.

What's in an (Online) Name?

From my friend Bonnie:

All of these are legitimate companies that didn't spend quite enough time considering how their online names might appear. Check them out.

1. Who Represents is where you can find the name of the agent that represents any celebrity. Their Web site is www.whorepresents.com

2 . Experts Exchange is a knowledge base where programmers can exchange advice and views at www.expertsexchange.com

3. Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island at www.penisland.net

4. Need a therapist? Try Therapist Finder at www.therapistfinder.com

5. There's the Italian Power Generator company, www.powergenitalia.com

6. And don't forget the Mole Station Native Nursery in New South Wales ,

www.molestationnursery.com

7. If you're looking for IP computer software, there's always

www.ipanywhere.com

8. The First Cumming Methodist Church Web site is www.cummingfirst.com

9. And the designers at Speed of Art await you at their wacky Web site,

www.speedofart.com

Winter Nights, Winter Days

Winter comes and then the snow
But candy canes and mistletoe
Cannot carry through to spring
To all the warmer laughter brings
And softly now the snow does tell
Of summer nights and sweet farewell
While brightly falls the beauty down
And sadness sparkles all around.

Crimson colored clouds above
Are they signs of Holy love?
And where does human kindess go
When winter comes and days are slow?
Amidst the dark of winter night
Can you see the studded sight?
Of stars that shine and send their light
And warm the Earth with gentle might.

Winter nights, winter days.
Searching for some sunny rays
To warm through
Desoltate haze
Of Winter nights, winter days.

January, February
March to May in dreams we carry
Hopes for happy days to come
When snowfall thaws by warmer sun
But harken now to singing snow
Let your trials and troubles and go
For ebbing fire still fights the cold
And sometimes snow is winter gold.

Just a bit of doggeral I wrote in college one melancholy night alone in my apartment while trying to decide if winter was bleak or beautiful.

Astronaut Charged with Kidnapping Attempt

From today's WaPo:

ORLANDO, Fla. -- An astronaut drove 900 miles and donned a disguise to confront a woman she believed was her rival for the affections of a space shuttle pilot, police said. She was arrested Monday and charged with attempted kidnapping and other counts

Where's Jeanie when you need her? "Blink!"

A Movie to Help Keep You Warm

Dead Bikes

"Let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the deaths of..." bikes.

As someone who had his bike stolen, there is nothing sadder (well, actually, there are a lot of things sadder) than seeing a "bike carcass." But DC Metroblogger sees performance art in it.

Brrrrrr

Gay = Disabled?

In a column in yesterday's WaPo William Saletan writes about a study in Montana that shows that roughly 10 percent of rams prefer sex with other rams instead of ewes. In other words, naturally occurring gay sheep.

In the piece, titled "Brokeback Mutton" (ha ha, clever), Saletan comes to a conclusion I find dismaying. While it's affirming that (yet another) scientific study shows that homosexuality is biologically based, Saletan doesn't stop there. Quote of note:

Science will gradually convince us that sexual orientation is innate, more like skin color than character. Condemnation of homosexuality as a sin will subside, and we'll turn to two biological differences between race and sexual orientation: Homosexuality defies the aspiration to procreate with your mate, and it's easier to isolate and alter in embryonic development. We may come to view homosexuality as we do infertility -- as a disability. The rhetoric of "acceptance" will shift from liberals to conservatives. We'll inoculate our children against homosexuality out of love, not hate.

So this is what it comes to -- A "progressive" view of homosexuality that sees it as a disability to be eradicated.

But Saletan makes one miscalculation -- being gay doesn't render us homos incapable of having kids. The equipment works just fine. I have a biological child. The only thing that "disables" gays from having children are man-made social constructs. Those social constructs can and should be altered to embrace new understandings of human sexuality.

A Gore Surge?

Is Al Gore the dark horse Dem candidate of 08? Consider this story of Gore's visit to Idaho from The Hill:

Former Vice President Al Gore came to town, appearing at the Frank Church Conference on Public Affairs at Boise State University. You know, the little school with the big football team. Gore and his “Inconvenient Truth” road show sold out a 10,000-seat auditorium faster than Bruce Springsteen’s last concert there. People were actually scalping tickets in the parking lot to hear a politician talk about global warming.

Sure, the movie version has been nominated for an Academy Award and, yes, Al Gore is the biggest political name to visit the Gem State in some time. But this is a state where logging trucks rule the road, every pickup has a gun rack and an American flag decal and you can’t raise crops without gas for your tractor and fertilizer for your fields. It is a state full of those who hunt and fish, but not environmentalists

Don't Pee in the Amazon

I'll be sure to heed that advice when I'm in South America later this year. (via John).

The Superbowl, Team Sports and Me

The Superbowl is on.

(yawn)

I don't fit the gay stereotype in many ways but in this one way I do -- I find team sports boring. I haven't taken an active interest in the Superbowl since the late 1970s when in Jr. High School I bet (and lost) on the Denver Broncos. I don't know why I liked the broncos. I probably liked the color of their jerseys.

Last night at a party someone asked me who I was rooting for. I got a deer in the headlights look as I realized I didn't even know who was playing.

In the part of the country where I went to high school it was Basketball, not football, that was THE sport. This was in Southern Illinois and if you've seen the movie Hoosiers that's exactly the same mania for bball I encountered in the early 1980s. As someone who stood 6ft1 the most common question I got from adults was "you play basketball?" "No, I play in the band," I would murmur. (Ironically, the movie Hoosiers is one of my favorites).

This indifference to team sports would follow me into adulthood. Once, while waiting on a conference call for all the participants to dial in, some other guy remarked, "did you catch the tournament last night?" The night before I had just watched the men's long program competition for figure skating. I started to exclaim, "Yeah, and did you see Brian Boitano's triple salchow toe loop combination?" When someone else cut me off and I realized they were talking about the NBA.

In high school, I was leader of the pep band. During a football game, I had the band start playing during a snap or a first in ten or some mumbo jumbo like that...and we got a technical foul. Because of me. Monday morning I was summoned to the principal's office to face the head coach, the principal and the team's quarterback (Ron Taylor, whose hairy pecs floated in my mind and distracted me from sleep on days we had gym class together). They tried to explain to me what had happened and why the band can't play during a "snap." The three of them tried to get me to understand...but eventually they gave up in comical frustration.

The one time I caught football fervor was in Jacksonville, Fl. Shortly after Jax got the Jaguars it looked like the team might go all the way to the Superbowl and football fever was epidemic and I caught it. Well, not enough to watch the games but to keep up with what was happening.

And I learned a little secret.

In locker rooms all my life I've heard the guys discussing this play or that play after a big game and their sports insight banter seemed so fluid and knowledgeable while my ignorance infinite. I could never keep up with it. Until I watched the postgame show after one of the Jaguars' games. The next day, at the Y, the sports banter parroted what had been said on the post game. "Yeah, they expected to play an offensive game but we kept them on the defense" I heard myself say as my towel-clad locker room fraternity nodded in agreement with my sage insight, which we had all heard on the postgame the night before.

So, I'm not watching the game tonight. The great commercials I can catch on YouTube. But I'll be ready for the locker room tomorrow. I'm watching the postgame commentary.

Friday Hottie of the Week

I've been lobbied on this one for several weeks -- Paul Rudd, from Friends, 40 Year Old Virgin and one of my favorite movies, Object of My Affection. And hopefully this will meet the LTR's request that I post someone hairy.

Obligatory shirtless pics below.

Maria: Bernstein and Carreras

This is a fascinating clip of Leonard Bernstein rehearsing Jose Carreras in the 1984 recording of West Side Story. As an amateur musician, it's interesting to watch the pettiness and egoism creep in while two masters struggle to get the performance perfect. Carreras is one of the "Three Tenors" and I always thought he was the best of the three, the least bloated musically and physically (and he is hot here in his five 0'clock shadow -- I seem to be developing a thing for the slightly unshaven). The one thing that drives me nuts, though, is Carreras' emphasis of the last syllable of "never," as in "nev-URR." Ugh.

This is a long clip, but worth watching to the end.

Marching Band and Cheerleader Blunders

In honor of my band starting rehearsals this coming Monday (via Stan):

Not Radcliffe

In thinking about posting the Friday hottie of the week, I thought briefly of the Daniel "Harry Potter" Radcliffe and the nude Equus promo pictures (a nude Radcliffe and a nude horse, in case you've been living under a rock this week).

But I decided, no, those pictures are everywhere, no need to reproduce them here. Besides...he's only 17! I've not descended that far into old troll status.

Pretty on the Outside has a good take (and spoof) on the whole thing here.

(via Tottyland, who says Radcliffe, in a move to shed his child star status, "Couldn't he just do drugs or come out like most child stars do?")

The Graying of the Internet

In Britain, grandpa and grandmama are plugging in.

Big Brother?

It's a bit unnerving, to blog critically about the Senate and then have someone from the U.S. Senate's Sergeant at Arms IP address drop by for a visit the same day.

Can I blog from Gitmo?

Warning! Diva Moment!

The incomparable Kathleen Battle (from Carmina Burana).

Ads with Shirtless Men

First one's the best.

Spooky

I've mentioned before there are strange occurrences in my house. We have heard a woman laughing and singing, we've heard (as have guests) footsteps down the hall when no one is there. The dogs sometimes stare a point in the wall and one time one dog moved her head from side to side as though watching someone (or something) walk across the room.

And, a few times, the stereo has turned itself on (I swear to you I'm not making this up).

Another incident just happened. My office is next to my son's room, where his toys are. One of them is a toy backhoe that works...you can pull levers and activate its treads and move the lift up and down. The levers are like light switches that have to be physically flipped to activate. It's been sitting quietly in his room since his last visit here, in November.

I'm sitting here working, and all of a sudden I hear the toy backhoe turn on, it's treads moving. It's loud, so it scared the crap out of me. My first thought was the dog somehow bumped against it. But when I entered the room, no dog.

I flipped the switch to turn it off.

Creepy.

Explanations?

Dealing with Annoying Seatmates

Gay Orbit has advice on dealing with seatmates on buses or planes you'd like to get rid of.

The Senate and Iraq

Imagine you're boarding a troop transport for Iraq -- and you see this story:

Democratic and Republican opponents of President Bush's troop-buildup plan joined forces last night behind the nonbinding resolution with the broadest bipartisan backing: a Republican measure from Sen. John W. Warner of Virginia.

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) announced the shift, hoping to unite a large majority of the Senate and thwart efforts by the White House and GOP leaders to derail any congressional resolution of disapproval of Bush's decision to increase U.S. troop levels in Iraq by 21,500.

You're leaving your loved ones, facing possible loss of life or limb for your country, but the U.S. Senate is officially saying you shouldn't be going. What do you think that would do to your morale?

Now, I've written in this space of my doubts about the wisdom of a troop increase. I've expressed little to no faith in the civilian leadership of the military, up to and including the president. But the game the Senate is playing is irresponsible. The resolution is nonbinding so it will do nothing except send a message to the troops going to and in Iraq (and to our enemies) that America is not united behind our mission there. It seems to me that such a message would be discouraging to our troops while give courage to the enemy.

Further, if our august Senators truly believe this is a colossal mistake, then stop it. Use the power of the purse to end it. Or search for some other legal means to end it. And then take responsibility for the outcome.

Robert Kagan had a powerful piece in this Sunday's Post. Of the various calls for withdrawal, troop caps and the like, Kagan writes:

Other critics claim that these are political cop-outs, which they are. These supposedly braver critics demand a cutoff of funds for the war and the start of a withdrawal within months. But they're not honest either, since they refuse to answer the most obvious and necessary questions: What do they propose the United States do when, as a result of withdrawal, Iraq explodes and ethnic cleansing on a truly horrific scale begins? What do they propose our response should be when the entire region becomes a war zone, when al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations establish bases in Iraq from which to attack neighboring states as well as the United States? Even the Iraq Study Group acknowledged that these are likely consequences of precipitate withdrawal.

Those who call for an "end to the war" don't want to talk about the fact that the war in Iraq and in the region will not end but will only grow more dangerous. Do they recommend that we then do nothing, regardless of the consequences? Or are they willing to say publicly, right now, that they would favor sending U.S. troops back into Iraq to confront those new dangers? Answering those questions really would be honest and brave.

But with the presidential election of 2008 looming large, honesty and bravery are not qualities we're likely to see from the Senate -- the playground for presidential wannabes.