The alphabet meme: G

is for favorite game: On my computer I usually just play good, old Pinball for Windows, the one that came with XP. On my cellphone I play Chuzzle, despite the fact that the phone version has a couple of bugs in it. I also play Klondike solitaire, especially when I want to keep my phone silent.

Plat du jour

= 1.

Someone (I think the governor) already has the "1" plate, so this kind of thing has to suffice, if you want the number 1 plate. I guess 2MINUS1 would be too straightforward.

(No, I don't really remember my trigonometry after all these decades. But Google is not just a search engine, it's also a calculator. Just type the formula to be solved in the search box.)

The alphabet meme: F

is for your favorite television show:
(Why is this "F" and not "T"?)
Masterpiece, which is what PBS recently renamed Masterpiece Theatre, after merging its "Mystery!" series into it. I've been watching it since the start, 37 years ago--The First Churchills got me hooked (No, it wasn't Upstairs, Downstairs, which was originally a stand-alone series. Its success was a big reason Masterpiece Theatre was created, though. It was repeated later as a part of Masterpiece Theatre.)

The alphabet meme: E

is for an essential item you use each day: Oxygen. I'd just die without it.

(What? You thought all my answers would be serious?)

Plat du jour

I don't.

The alphabet meme: D

is for dog's name: I've never had a dog. When I was a toddler we had a boxer named Lady. I'm told she would carry me around by the seat of my pants, while I was complaining, "Stop that, Yady!" I think my parents later told me she had been stolen, but I suspect the truth was she had been run over by a car.

The alphabet meme: C

is for the car that you drive: Whatever they give me at the rental place.

I haven't owned a car since 1987. It's an unnecessary pain in the neck living and working in Manhattan. My wife had one for a few years, when she was teaching in New Jersey. (It was a Chevy Cavalier. She bought it from a neighbor who was moving out of town. I hated it. Its brakes were horrible and it had more rattles than Toys R Us.) During the school year her schedule made it possible to find parking on the street with only a small amount of difficulty. In the summer she parked it in a garage up in Harlem, right around the corner from the subway--it would cost $500+ a month around where we live.

What I do have, though, is a non-owner's automobile liability insurance policy. It's only $194 a year to cover both of us up to $500,000. I recommend it to anyone who doesn't have a car but rents or borrows.

More trouble for the Republicans

Frank Powers, designated by the Republicans to run for disgraced Congressman Vito Fossella's seat, died yesterday. Now they'll have scrape down even deeper to find someone to run.

The alphabet meme: B

is for your burger of choice: I don't eat many burgers any more. Occasionally we go up the street to Jackson Hole, where I have a turkey cheeseburger, with grilled mushrooms and onions. Once in a while I'll eat some place where I can get a bisonburger. I'm not sure when the last time I had a burger made of beef was. Perhaps it was when we were up in the Berkshires on vacation last July.

My week in review

Sunday: was a rare weekend day out as Caprice, as my wife wanted to do something I was totally uninterested in. First, Clover Honey (recovering in male mode from emceeing the Brooklyn Pride Festival the previous day) and I saw a pair of transgender documentaries at Newfest, the NYC LGBT film festival. One was Envisioning Justice: The Journey of a Transgendered Woman. This was about Pauline Park, a New York trans activist with whom I've worked on the GENDA Coalition steering committee. It was quite good, and I learned a lot about her life. I knew she was a Korean adoptee, but I hadn't known she has a twin brother. The second film was Simply Love (Gewoon Liefde). This was a sequel to the 1993 documentary A Change of View, which told the story a Dutch transwoman's transition. The sequel tells of her reuniting with a girfiend of her youth, after 40 years. It was a boring soap opera--the only interesting parts were the excerpts from the original film that were inserted.

After the films there was a Q&A with Pauline and her film-biographer, Larry Tung. Then some of us went over to the HK Lounge for a bit of a reception. My friend Cleopatra Queen of Denile joined us, dressed for a party as always. Then she and I adjourned next door to HK's restaurant for some dinner (my entree was about half the size it should have been, but CQoD was quite satisfied with hers).

Following that we went to XES, where we watched the Tony Awards. I filled up on a hot dog and popcorn they provided, while getting semi-inebriated (I sure wish bars wouldn't get Absolut Apeach confused with Absolut Pear, though). It's fun watching the Tony's in a gay bar, with people cheering on their favorites. The guy sitting next to me knew every song that was performed.

Tuesday: I went to the ACLU's LGBT & AIDS Project's 10th Annual Pride Reception for attorneys and summer associates. I was on the host committee. It was held at the fabulous offices of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, located on the 50th floor of the Citigroup Center. The views were fantastic. I was looking down on the famous "lipstick building." I met a few people I knew, and had a nice time talking to them and filling up on wonderful hors d'oeuvres and gin and tonics. Things were winding down about 9:30, and I called it an early night.

The rest of the week: I stayed home, helping my wife with some things she wanted done around the apartment. Friday and Saturday evenings we watched the last two episodes of John Adams.

The alphabet meme: A

Since I seem to need some motivation to blog these days, I'll use something I found on Sandy's Noted and blogged. I'll do one a day. So this should get me going for 26 days.

is for your age: I'm 59. Honest. People tend not to believe you when you say you're something-9, but I'm really 59, and I'll be there for a few months more. Then I'll be 60! It's kind of scary. But at least there's one chain of movie theaters around here that considers you a senior at that age.