Saturday, April 22, 2006

Weird websearch of the day (yesterday)

putting a shoebox under your bed with a red rose, egg
Umm, I just don't know what to say about this one. Not only does my blog have nothing on this subject, it doesn't seem like any of the sites MSNsearch found do either. They're all just places that have some of these words in them some place.

I wonder, is putting a rose and an egg under your bed a recipe for fertility?

Friday, April 21, 2006

Happy birthday, Your Majesty

Today is Queen Elizabeth II's 80th birthday. She's showing no signs of slowing down, let alone abdicating (her mother lived beyond a 100.) So hopefully there will be a lot more of these birthdays to celebrate.

Of course, this is only her actual birthday, not the official one. That's June 17, this year. It's always a Saturday in June. I wonder if she gets cake twice.

If you want to send her a greeting, go here. I did.

Thursday, April 20, 2006

I'm number one for "republican in trouble!"

Someone Googled "republican in trouble," and my blog was the first entry! And the second! I'm so proud.

First and second out of "about 21,800,000." I guess "republican" and "trouble" just seem to go together--much more than "democrat in trouble," for which Google could only find "about 11,500,000."

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Two headlines, one thought

I use excite.com as my home page, and I have their "Top Stories" as my leading category. Today they listed these two headlines in row:
Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes Welcome New Baby
Experts Suggest Spacing Pregnancies
In their case, I would suggest spacing them fifty years apart.

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Shouldn't that be "womanhandled?"

Manhattan Transsexual Charged With Assaulting Mom
Posted: Tuesday, 18 April 2006 10:48AM

New York (1010 WINS) -- The trial of a transsexual accused of breaking her wealthy mother's arm during a fight over money is expected to start Tuesday.

A judge ruled Monday that a jury will hear testimony about other alleged violence against Constance Joyce Cheney, 85.

Diane Wells is charged with harassing and assaulting Cheney on May 10, 2005, in the Central Park West apartment where they lived.

Judge Ellen Coin says she'll allow evidence that Wells manhandled her mother, when she pushed her into a wall causing her head to hit a picture frame and that she blew smoke into her face during an argument.

Wells' lawyer says Cheney was in the hospital for several days without mentioning the defendant. He suggested that his client's brother encouraged their mother to blame his client.
Seriously, though, what does the defendent's being a transsexual have to do with this case? The media jump on these type of stories, but it reminds me of when newspapers identified a person's race or religion (when it was a minority) when it was not germane to the story at all.

Daffodils want the spotlight?

I tried putting this picture in the article below, but it kept screwing up the display. I tried all sorts of different ways. I'd say I had too many pictures, but the problem only seemed to be with this one. But it's fine here. I dunno. Maybe the daffodils just want to have an article all to themselves.

Yesterday: From low to high

Yesterday did not start out terribly well: my toilet overflowed and...you don't want to know the messy details.

But, in the afternoon, we took a walk up to the Conservatory Garden in Central Park. This little gem across Fifth Avenue from Mount Sinai Hospital is a formal garden packed with beautiful flowers. The crabapple trees were in full bloom (though one other type of flowering tree had already dropped its petals).




The tulips were just starting--some were up, but not a lot. But the daffodils (see picture) were out in force. I never knew there were so many varieties.








They haven't turned on the fountains in the Garden yet, but it was still lovely. Despite the sun it wasn't that warm, so there weren't too many people there, and we could sit and enjoy the colorful sight in peace and quiet.

Monday, April 17, 2006

Someone at the NY Times has a sense of humor

On the front page of today's New York Times' business section there is a prominent article about the Page Six gossip column in the New York Post. The article continues on the business section's page six.

My week in review, part 1

Busy, busy, busy. I won't bore you with all my errands. Instead I'll bore you with the political and leisure-type fun activities of my week. But come to think of it, some of the errands were more fun than some of the leisure. Anyhow:

MONDAY: A conference call of the NYS GENDA Coalition. Basically I told them I couldn't do a lot of the work on setting up in-district meetings with the state assembly co-sponsors, because I'll be on vacation in Spain.

TUESDAY: I went down to CDI, changed into some semi-lawyerly clothes, then went and helped someone with her name change papers. (If that seems strange, take my word for it that I'm not the only lawyer in the world that makes house calls. Besides, I don't have a real office.) Then we went for a little Mexican dinner and a nice conversation.

I returned to CDI and changed into some decidedly non-lawyerly clothes (shimmery black and gold skirt, gold tank top covered by a sheer black blouse, gold accented fishnets). Then it was off with my friend Madeline to Happy Valley, where there was sort of an after-party to the official launch of the Amanda Lepore doll. The doll is a fundraiser for DIFFA - The Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS. (If you don't know who Amanda Lepore is, let's just say that she's a TS who likes to run around wearing nothing but lingerie, and who's had much more than her share of plastic surgery. I really think her doll should come with interchangable parts.)

We got there pretty early, and were warmly welcomed by the woman handling the door. No cover charge. We checked our coats, and went into the main room. After getting a $10 gin and tonic we went upstairs. The velvet ropes to the VIP area were pushed to the side, so we just walked in and claimed a couple of seats. A tiny, high-heeled woman wearing short-shorts came by and said she'd be our cocktail waitress. There was a menu there for bottle service: $300 per bottle. After drinking a little of my drink, though, I realized a bottle might be a bargain--I didn't get much gin for my $10.

We sat and watched the people flow in. A few danced. The music was loud, but not extremely--you could have a conversation if you really wanted to. But it really wasn't worth the effort.

This was really my first encounter with "club kids"--the 20-something (at least according to their IDs) people who dress wildly and/or fashionably and party the nights away in places like Happy Valley. (There really weren't any when I went to Duvet last September--which was the only other time I had seen Amanda Lepore.) Except I noticed that not all the "kids" were that young. Lots of cleavage, some of both genders wore extensive make-up. A few of the costumes were quite inventive--obviously home-made by someone who knew how to sew. There were also a few guys in high drag--I think I recognized one from the Imperial Court. But the costumed ones (ourselves included) were maybe slightly outnumbered by, how shall I put it, the mundanes--though I didn't see any backward baseball cap-wearing frat boys one online reviewer complained about. And the mundanes were frequently on the older side of the scale--lots of 40+'s.

The anti-smoking laws were violated by a good number of people, especially up on the balcony where we were. The only thing the club did about it was to diligently sweep up the cigarette butts from the floor.

We sat and watched as the place filled up. Eventually Madeline's friend Sheila showed up. We had another weak drink--after Sheila went off to find the waitress.

Some time after midnight they auctioned off one of the dolls--apparently the last unsold one. It went for $1500--and they would have gotten more had they noticed a woman at the side trying to bid. Sheila left, as she had to get up to go to work the next morning. After a great deal of effort we flagged down the waitress for one last drink. A female mundane leaned over and told me that I was the hottest one in the place, and I would "certainly get something" that evening. Yeah, right. I thanked her for her compliment.

I finished my drink, and we decided to leave. On the way downstairs I lost my cellphone. After my unsuccesful search I gave up and we went to retrieve our coats. We had to pass through a very long line for the restroom--I'm glad I didn't have to go.

While waiting on the coatcheck line (much shorter than the restroom one, thank goodness) Amanda Lepore herself passed by--we almost bumped elbows. I discovered she is tiny! Even in her heels, significantly higher than mine, she was two or three inches shorter than I am, and I'm only 5'5". She's taller in photos. But she's even more weird-looking in real life.

WEDNESDAY: We hosted a Passover seder for 11 people at our apartment. I should say my wife and her friend hosted it. I'm not real big in the religion department. But I did supply logistical support--like running to the supermarket at 4:30 for parsley and raw horseradish. Since it was a school night, and a good proportion of the attendees were students or teachers, it didn't run real late.

The evening wasn't totally useless, though. I learned something new. I learned that even four sprigs of parsley dipped in saltwater do not do much for my hunger.

Sunday, April 16, 2006

Non-news of the day

Pope Celebrates Easter, Prays for Peace
So a religious leader celebrates a religious holiday in the usual way, saying the usual things. Why is this news?