Plat du jour

Woof, woof!

The alphabet meme: Z

is for zodiac sign: Scorpio, at least according to the astrologers. But it's total hogwash. The stars don't determine our fates.

Plat du jour

Homophobic, I think.

The alphabet meme: Y

is for yummy food you ate today: Steak au poivre (though the sauce had only a tiny bit of pepper) and fries. Dessert was mixed berries with crème fraiche.

Happy anniversary--to us!

Today is our 20th wedding anniversary. Yay us!

The alphabet meme: X

is for x-rays you have had: (They sure had to work hard to come up with something for X.)

• I get a chest x-ray every year.


• My teeth get x-rayed every year.


• When I was about 12 I ran down a hill into a tree and hit my arm, so they x-rayed that. I did crack a bone slightly, so they put a cast on it.


• The doctor probably x-rayed my feet when he wrote a letter to my draft board saying why I'd have difficulty being in the army. (The draft board doctor agreed.)


• Back in the 50's, before they realized this was dangerous, they had x-ray machines in shoe stores, so they could see if there was enough room for the toes.

That's all I can remember.

The alphabet meme: W

is for your worst habit: Procrastination.

The alphabet meme: V

is for favorite vegetable: Potatoes. I love starches. Unfortunately, I can't eat them very often. We never have them at home. What I do get to eat sometimes is asparagus, which I think is my second favorite.

Living with bears XLI

Canada: Bear spotted in East Vancouver captured, Bear tranquilized in Winnipeg neighbourhood, Bear shot, killed near Salem school, Bear gives Brentwood Bay a scare, then strolls off, It’s bear season once again, Bear sighting in Pickering, Bear’s wild ride in Pickering over

Massachusetts: Awe, damage mark trail of bear sightings

Nevada: Calif., Nev. pool resources to combat bear problems at Tahoe

Pennsylvania: Bear keeps Perkasie police hopping, Black bear city’s least-wanted tourist, Montgomery County Black Bear Tagged, Released

Rhode Island: Black bear roams South County

The alphabet meme: U

is for what you consider unique: I am going to assume that this is asking what I consider unique about myself.

If you go back to the original meaning of the word, "one of a kind," then I don't think there's anything particularly interesting that's unique about me.

Unfortunately, the definition of "unique" has expanded. It now just means "unusual"--hence the term "more unique" is no longer non-sensical, as it once was. (In my opinion this change of definition has made the word "unique" worthless: one can just as easily use "unusual." We now have to say "one of a kind" or something similar when that's what we mean. So I no longer use "unique" for anything.)

So, what do I consider unusual (it still begins with "U") about myself? Well, being a politically active crossdresser is a rather unusual. I can only think of one other in New York City: Clover Honey. (But she moved to New Jersey, so does she really count for the City?) There's also Juli Owens out on Long Island. There are also a handful that participate occasionally.

Of course, being a crossdresser is, itself, unusual.

My week in review

Sunday: Following a lunch in the cafeteria, we saw the J. M. W. Turner exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Actually, we only saw part of it--it's so big that we'll have to go back again to finish.

Monday: First, I volunteered as a lawyer at the West Village TransLegal Clinic Name Change Project. After helping 5 people prepare their petitions to take to court, I jumped in a cab and went to the Maestrocities show at the Zipper Theater with my friend Cleopatra Queen of Denile and her roommate. As usual it was lots of fun. Unfortunately there won't be another show until October--allegedly they're going to band camp.

Wednesday: I had my quarterly check-up at my doctor's (it's so often because of a couple rather powerful medications I'm on). It included my annual electrocardiogram. Everything was fine, though we haven't gotten the lab results yet.

Thursday: First, I went to another Yetta Kurland for City Council fundraiser. This one was at the home of Margaret Ratner Kunstler, the widow of the self-described "radical lawyer" and civil rights activist William Kunstler. Their Greenwich Village townhouse was described by Kurland supporter Tom Shanahan, Deputy Commissioner of the NY State Division of Human rights and former civil rights attorney, as "hallowed ground."

Then I walked over a few blocks to Lips Restaurant. I said hello (again) to CDI member Abby and her sister, whom I had seen at the CDI apartment earlier when I was getting dressed. I got a drink from Frankie Cocktail at the bar, and waited for my friend Cleopatra Queen of Denile to show up. She soon arrived. We ordered a guacamole and waited for the show to start. Eventually it did--Thursdays at Lips is "Dinner with the Divas," where the waitresses actually impersonate the singers they are lipsyncing. First was show hostess Jesse Volt as Joan Rivers--no lipsyncing, just a bit of comedy, asking who in the audience was celebrating something, etc. Then Frankie did her usual Dolly Parton, Morgan impersonated Mary J. Blige, Ginger did Bette Middler, and Jesse returned, this time as Cher.

We stayed a bit after the show, then went off to see our friend Clover Honey in another show at another bar. But that turned out to be a mistake--she wasn't performing there that night. Fortunately we were only a block away from another show we were thinking of seeing: Starshine Burlesque at The Fortune Cookie Cabaret. I wanted to see Dirty Martini perform especially. But all the performers were good.

Saturday: We watched the last episode of Inspector Lewis, which we had recorded.