Plat du jour--guest submission

Found by Joanne on the myHusbandBetty boards.

Weekly free associations

1. In love :: with


2. Be my guest :: Disney


3. Number one :: son


4. Swallowed whole :: gullible


5. 50 percent :: off


6. Made in :: China


7. Supplement :: add


8. Right for :: you


9. Endless :: melody


10. Ceramic :: tile

Thanks to Unconscious Mutterings.

Plat du jour

I would say this plate belongs to El Juglar, except he works for a Mets minor league team, not a Yankees one. I dunno.

Weekly free associations

I've really gotten behind doing these.

1. Contemplate :: Navel


2. In the house :: Out of the house


3. Classical :: music


4. Quest :: Boggle


5. Best friend :: Man's


6. 1991 :: Bush I


7. Never will :: Say never


8. Fool :: Money


9. Unhappy :: Happy


10. Best man :: Wedding

1. Magical :: Mystery Tour


2. Shrimp :: Cocktail


3. Project Runway :: Hedda Lettuce


4. Economy :: Car


5. Porch :: Swing


6. State of affairs :: Oy


7. .com :: .net


8. Fifty cents :: 4 bits


9. Ripping :: Tearing


10. Bull :: Shit

1. Zoo :: Total


2. Neighborhood :: There goes the


3. Salute :: Flag


4. Immortality :: Teens


5. Dominion :: Canada


6. Rhonda :: Fleming


7. Parties :: Fun


8. Prince of Darkness :: Batman?


9. Garbage :: Pail


10. Standard :: Deviation

1. Insight :: ??


2. Irksome :: ??


3. Maybe :: Not


4. Confirmation :: Hotel


5. Bib :: Overalls


6. Stop! :: Go!


7. Lobster :: Newberg


8. Boys :: Girls


9. Fire away :: Hit Me With Your Best Shot


10. Give up :: the ship

Thanks to Unconscious Mutterings.

Plat du jour--guest submission

A transwoman on the myHusbandBetty boards just got this plate. Thanks, Steph!

Is this what Joan of Arc really looked like?

There are no pictures of Joan of Arc, apart from a couple very crude drawings. However, Patricia Nell Warren on the Bilerico Project thinks that this might actually be what she looked like, apart from hair color. Her theory is a bit of a stretch, but it's still quite interesting.

Plat du jour

Even the license plates are nagging me now.

Plat du jour

From Fail Blog. This was quite deliberate, I'm sure.

Another one from Overheard in NY

Little boy: Mommy, John McCain likes Abba.
Mom: Does he really now? Then you two have something in common.
Little boy: Noooooo!

--Overheard in New York

Today's best from Overheard in NY

Principal, over PA system: Attention: We are testing out the PA system. If you don't hear this, please call the office.

--Public School

Overheard in NY

No wonder our schools are failing.

Is this a setback for crossdressing?

Plat du jour

Found by an optician's on Lexington Ave.

Now we're number 7

The Transgender and Allies group has moved up to seventh on ActBlue's ranking of donors to the Obama campaign! We're up to 259 donors when I write this.

In two and a half days we've added over 150 donors (who gave about $8,000).

So please join in, if you haven't already. Help make the trans community visible politically. Read Kate Bornstein's latest post if you're unconvinced.

Just go to http://www.actblue.com/page/trans. Even if you can only afford a buck or two, it counts. And it all goes to the Obama campaign--neither ActBlue nor the Stonewall Democrats (who helped set up this effort) get anything. ActBlue does ask for a "tip" to help finance their operation, but it's completely optional.

Trans for Obama--keep up the momentum

The Trans for Obama Day is over, but our effort goes on. Contributions made today will count toward the Obama campaign's third quarter statistics, the last major reporting period before the election.

We also have a new goal: 261 donors. This should move us into 7th place on the list of groups donating to the Obama campaign through ActBlue.

So, if you haven't done so already, please make a donation. It's not too late. Large donations are appreciated, but any amount is welcome--the number of donors is of higher importance. The goal (aside from helping elect Barack Obama, of course), is to increase the political visibility of the transgender community and our allies.

Go to the Trans Community and Allies Page on ActBlue:
http://www.actblue.com/page/trans

It only takes a couple minutes. Even if you can only afford a buck or two--every penny goes to the Obama campaign.

It's also not too late to blog about our campaign. Joann Prinzivalli has joined the bloggers for the trans page group.

2:30PM UPDATE: We're up to 234 donors! and add some more bloggers to our list: Debra Porta, and Véronique. And then there's my friend Betty, who not only posted on the Daily Kos, but came out as trans there as well!

3:00PM UPDATE: The ActBlue site is having technical difficulties at the moment. Grrr!

5:30PM UPDATE: The site is back up. So you can donate NOW. Please.

We did it!

200 donors!

Only 6 more!

We need just 6 more donors to the Trans and Allies for Obama page to reach 200. We've got 9 minutes left until midnight. We can do it. Go to

http://www.actblue.com/page/trans

Right now!

UPDATE: I'm now told we're going by Pacific Daylight Time. And we only need 4 more now.

Mukasey: three steps forward, a big one back

On the same day I praised Attorney General Michael Mukasey for the latest of three positive developments, I got an action alert from the ACLU. It asked me to sign a petition to the Department of Justice's Inspector General, requesting him to determine whether the FBI has been violating its current internal guidelines on investigations. The action alert said:

Bush and Mukasey are at it again. They’ve announced dangerous new FBI guidelines that will severely jeopardize the personal privacy of innocent Americans. These regulations need no congressional approval and are terrifying...

If implemented, new guidelines will allow the FBI to interview you, your friends and your family under a false pretext.

The FBI could recruit secret informants and have them infiltrate peaceful protest groups.

Investigations based on little more than race, ethnicity or religion would be allowed.

The ACLU believes the proposal is unconstitutional.

But it's even worse than that. There are indications that the FBI is already acting as if the proposed new guidelines were in force.

So I signed the petition, and am asking you to sign, too (and unlike Trans for Obama Day, this won't cost you a cent). Just go to http://action.aclu.org/fbiguidelines. Here's what the ACLU suggested I send out:

Subject: We're all suspects?!

Under new FBI guidelines proposed by Attorney General Michael Mukasey, all the FBI has to do to put anybody they want under prolonged physical surveillance is assert an “authorized purpose” such as detecting or preventing crime or protecting “national security."

These kinds of Bush/Cheney/Gonzales/Mukasey “just trust us” policies have been eroding our rights for the past eight years. After illegal spying and top-level torture policies coming from the White House, this is absurd. Enough is enough!

These new guidelines would allow the FBI to interview you, your friends and family under a false pretext. The FBI could recruit secret informants, and have them infiltrate peaceful protest groups. And the FBI to could initiate investigations based on little more than race, ethnicity or religion.

The FBI could also search commercial databases for personal details about your life with no real reason.

And all of this would be allowed without an ounce of evidence that you or anyone else has done anything wrong.

These guidelines represent one step closer to a police state. And the worst part is that there is good reason to believe the FBI has been violating its internal guidelines all along.

Fortunately, there is something we can do about this before the new regulations are implemented.

I just demanded that the Inspector General at the Department of Justice launch an investigation to determine if the FBI has been violating its own guidelines. The Inspector General’s office at the Department of Justice has proven to be an unbiased, internal watchdog that has consistently exposed wrongdoing. We need to urge the IG to do it again. Take action now at:

http://action.aclu.org/fbiguidelines

We're number 8! We're number 8!

The Transgender and Allies group has moved up to eighth on ActBlue's ranking of donors to the Obama campaign! We've gotten 143 donors as of this writing.

So please join in, if you haven't already. Help make the trans community visible politically. If you still need some convincing, read my earlier post, and my original one from June. Or check out these bloggers' posts: Kate Bornstein, Helen Boyd (also her guest post on feministing), Angie Buhl, Laura Calvo, Lena Dahlstrom, Monica Helms, Andrea James, Dr. Morbius, Veronica Pejril, Riftgirl, Annie Rushden, Autumn Sandeen, Dr. Jillian Weiss. Also, Riftgirl's Sarah Palin video is hilarious.

Just go to http://www.actblue.com/page/trans. Even if you can only give $5, it counts. And it all goes to the campaign--neither ActBlue nor the Stonewall Democrats get anything. (But somebody's been sending in some big bucks: the group's total has increased about $3,600 today!)

6:00 PM (EDT) UPDATE: over 60 donors today, giving over $4,600--pushing us over the $10K mark!

Mukasey does another good thing

U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey continues to impress me. After this, and this, he has now appointed a prosecutor to go after Republicans who may have broken the law by orchestrating the firing of U.S. attorneys for political reasons--particularly for investigating possible crimes by other prominent Republicans.

This is somewhat of a reversal of his previous stance. In an address to the American Bar Association in August, Mukasey stated, "[N]ot every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime." Technically, that is correct. But now he has been convinced that there may have been criminal acts here, as well as violations of the civil service law.

Bravo, Mr. Attorney General!

UPDATE: Already senators are warning Bush not to pardon any law-breakers found.

Trans for Obama Day--a good start

So far today we've added about 30 donors and $1000 for the Obama campaign through the trans page on ActBlue. If just 4 more people make donations we'll move up to the eighth largest group! If you make a donation NOW, you could be the one who moves us up the list!


Just click on:
http://www.actblue.com/page/trans

Here are some other people blogging about the Trans for Obama Day: Kate Bornstein, Helen Boyd, Lena Dahlstrom, Andrea James, Riftgirl, Annie Rushden, Dr. Jillian Weiss.

Assume nothing

From Overheard in New York

Man in elevator on cell: Yeah. That's what I'm paying for, right? Next time just make sure it's a male to female.

Trans-blog day for Obama

Today a number of trans and allied bloggers are renewing our plea to help the campaign of Barack Obama for president. Back in June a group of us sent out a request for donations to the Obama campaign through a specific page on Act Blue, the online clearinghouse for Democratic action, which was set up with the help of the Stonewall Democrats. The purpose of this effort was to demonstrate to the Obama campaign that we trans people and our allies are a significant group supporting him.

As you can see by the donor thermometer above we've had some success. As of this writing we are ninth on the list of groups donating to the Obama campaign through Act Blue. With a little effort we could be eighth. With a bit more, we could be seventh. Click here for my update.

I think (hope) that I'm preaching to the choir when I say that a McCain-Palin administration would be disastrous for the country, and for LGBT people in particular. While Barack Obama is not our perfect candidate, he is head and shoulders above his opponent.

He needs our financial support. The Republicans, the party of money, can always count on large donations from a small number of wealthy people, who want to use our government to increase their wealth, regardless of how that affects anyone else. Democrats like Barack Obama need the support of a large number of non-wealthy people, each giving a little, to counter this.

And as a group, trans people certainly are non-wealthy. If such a survey were possible, I'm sure we would find that the median wealth of trans people is far below that of the non-trans population. Many of us are the victims of employment discrimination. Many of us have to find new jobs, if not whole new careers, after transitioning--and transitioning itself can be very expensive.

So we don't expect large donations (though that would be nice, of course). We're looking to get as many people as possible to donate through the trans page. The number of donors is more important than the amount of money raised.

Everyone's help is needed. Your contribution, even if it's only $5, is needed. Please help. Please demonstrate to the Obama campaign that trans people are significant supporters. We need to be visible.

So go to http://www.actblue.com/page/trans and make a contribution. Every penny goes to the Obama campaign--no fees are deducted. Do it now, before you forget.

Thanks.

Weekly free associations

1. Hearing :: loss


2. Aggression :: Georgia


3. Charged :: particles


4. Traveler :: insurance


5. Hydrate :: water


6. Detox :: shampoo


7. Qualify :: Olympics


8. Prison :: cell


9. Frontal :: lobotomy


10. Pep talk :: halftime

Thanks to Unconscious Mutterings.

Plat du jour

A fan of one of those New Jersey football teams. (The only NFL team in New York is the Bills.)

Mukasey's on a roll

Justice Department won't send prosecutors to polls

Another good decision out of the attorney general's office. If the Bush administration weren't ending in a few months, I'd be wondering how long before Mukasey would be booted out.

A Bushie does something right!

U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey has rejected the denial of asylum for a woman facing genital mutilation and a possible forced marriage to her cousin. I'm impressed. After the miserable term of John Ashcroft, and the even worse one of Alberto R. Gonzales, Bush's latest A-G is definite improvement.

Of course, it's all relative. He's still a conservative Republican. He's just not a knee-jerk right-wing idealogue.

Best "Overheard in the Office" of the day

Female employee: You've never had Krispy Kreme donuts?
Male employee: Nope.
Female employee: Ohh. They are so good!
Male employee: Really?
Female employee: Yeah, they're better than sex!
Male employee: Hmm. You must be doing it wrong.

Centerville, Utah

via Overheard in the Office, Sep 22, 2008

I'm famous!

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5h2x8r8U5awx7fHsLIyvMbm53XEUw (I'm at the end.)

An accurate quote for once. But I don't think I was somber. Maybe the reporter was only looking at my friend. And for the record, I was wearing a glittery top and a skirt, and Tawdry had on an LBD. He was right about my necklace, though. I was running late and didn't have time to find the one I really wanted to wear.

This article is from Agence France-Press (AFP), and has already been carried by a bunch of news outlets around the world!

Weekly free associations

1. Heist :: Dortmunder


2. Hack :: license


3. Dane :: Nothing like a


4. Stings :: bees


5. Monkey :: business


6. Junkie :: dope


7. Pumped :: muscles


8. Brass :: tacks


9. Fight! :: 54-40 or


10. Vouch :: for

from Unconscious Mutterings

The ultimate silly online quiz

I could survive for 60 seconds chained to a bunk bed with a velociraptor
Thanks, Sandyshoes.

Plat du jour

I prefer chocolate.

Weekly free associations

1. Cut the crap :: ???


2. Scent :: smell


3. Vanishing :: cream


4. Wetness :: dryness


5. Cheap :: expensive


6. Badges :: stinking


7. Puppy :: love


8. Problem solver :: ???


9. Gambling :: addiction


10. Sophia :: Loren

from Unconscious Mutterings

I seem to have trouble with ones of more than one word.

Another one for the trans team?

From Liz Smith's column:

I THINK part of me would love to play a drag queen, just because it would be an excuse to wear loads of eye makeup," says the "Harry Potter" star Daniel Radcliffe.

Plat du jour

Eh, what's up, doc?

Plat du jour

Boasting about his/her salary, I guess.

Headline of the day

Teacher OK after crashing into bear on a bicycle

It must have been one of those circus bears.

(The AP did try to fix up the headline later: "Teacher OK after striking bear while riding bike.")

Plat du jour

Weekly free associations

1. House :: party


2. Think :: ahead


3. Clot :: cream


4. Believe me :: ???


5. Fumigation :: bugs


6. Bore :: drill


7. Luck :: draw


8. Patient :: doctor


9. Tremors :: movie


10. Pickles :: condiments

from Unconscious Mutterings

Plat du jour

A Martin Brodeur fan, I believe. Unless it's actually Brodeur's car.

Community organizer vs. governor

Plat du jour

No, New York is in the United States.

Plat du jour

In lieu of what? (unless this is referring to a very crowded bathroom)

Olympic thoughts

The Opening Ceremony: I thought the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony was magnificent--but at a cost of $300,000,000, they were hardly worth it. That's nearly $30,000 per athlete! Ooops, I forgot. The ceremony isn't for the athletes--they don't enter the stadium until most of it is over. Hopefully they had screens set up in their holding area so they could watch it.

Architecture: The "Bird's Nest" stadium and the swimming building (I refuse to call it a cube, because it's not one) are wonderful. I was a bit surprised at how attractive a lot of the Beijing architecture is. Somehow I expected it to be heavier, more practical than stylish. But even the extremely solid-looking tomb of Mao Tse-tung has playful moving fountains in front.

The NBC coverage: It was pretty good--I'll give them a B, maybe a B+. They handled the time difference quite well, even beyond insisting that events like the swimming finals be held in the morning Beijing time, so they could be shown live in prime time in the U.S. They managed to show the recorded events quite naturally, without pretending it was live. Only once did I notice an announcer giving the results of something that had not yet been broadcast. One problem, though, was NBC's tendency to wait until prime time to show the events that the U.S. athletes did well in. For instance, they showed the rowing finals during the day, except no mention was made of the women's 8 event, which the U.S. boat won. That they saved to show in the evening.

Personally, though, it was a pain avoiding news reports of the results of events that were not yet broadcast. I read the sports section of the newspaper a day late, just to make sure.

The level of NBC's expert commentary varied quite a bit. Some of it was over-technical (like fencing), some was lacking in depth (like gymnastics). Speaking of fencing, I found it impossible to follow. Even with slow motion replays, I couldn't really tell what was happening.

They kept the number of features down--there were just enough to give viewers an occasional break from the events, while still using most of the broadcasts to show the competitions. I was not the least bit surprised that there were no coverage of the living quarters of the average Beijing residents, however--let alone any mention of the rural poverty found throughout most of the country.

I did miss having a daily wrap-up. I suppose that might be difficult with the time difference. The only thing they did each day was to give a medal count.

The competition: Michael Phelps' winning 8 gold medals was tremendous--significantly more difficult than the 7 Mark Spitz won in 1972. For one thing, Spitz only swam the freestyle and the butterfly, while Phelps used all four strokes. Also, Phelps swam 17 races to Spitz's 13, I think it was. But also, I think the level of competition is just a whole lot greater today than it was 36 years ago. There was one factor, never mentioned in the broadcasts, where Phelps had it easier. Spitz completed his feat in the aftermath of the Palestinian terrorist attack on the Israeli athletes, and there was concern that Spitz, who is Jewish, might also be a target. It was a nice touch, though, for NBC to have Spitz electronically join Phelps in an interview--not that Spitz really had all that much to say, other than to congratulate Phelps.

In a way it was unfortunate that so many of the U.S. teams did so well. Their games took up a huge amount of the broadcasts, and I think coverage of individual events suffered because of that. I never saw a minute of wrestling, a sport I like a lot.

Officiating: As for the officiating, there was far too much controversy, particularly in the judged events. I don't ever remember there being problems with diving in the past, and there weren't any in Beijing, outside of some widely divergent scores occasionally. But gymnastics had some, and boxing was a complete mess. The winter games' figure skating has managed to come up with a pretty good solution to its problems: a change to a somewhat more objective system, and the use a large panel of judges (14, I think) from which a computer blindly picks a smaller number to actually use. Gymnastics would greatly benefit from a similar system. However, there would be a problem: gymnastics has multiple events going on simultaneously, 6 for the men, 4 for the women. So you'd need a huge number of judges, and I doubt there are that many who have enough experience judging world-class competitions.

To its credit, gymnastics has made some changes. It has made the judging criteria more objective. And quite some time ago it went to "neutral judging." All of the judges are from countries that do not have athletes competing in that event. But from that a different problem arises--although the possibility of biased judges has decreased, neutral judging increases the possibility of incompetent judges. Simply put, if a country is not able to develop gymnasts good enough to compete at the Olympics, it may not be able to develop judges that are good enough to officiate there. At the very least, they probably will not have been seeing very much of the Olympic-level skills back in their home countries. I think this was the reason it took so long for some of the scores to arrive sometimes, particularly in the early days--the "technical committee," which does have officials from the competing countries, were checking the judges' scores to make sure that at least the objective part was done correctly.

Then there's boxing. Without getting into the question of whether it belongs in the Olympics at all, its judging system just doesn't work right. They tried to make it objective, but what they came up with is totally inadequate. Five judges are arranged around the ring. Each has a button for each fighter, and they are supposed to push the button for a contestant when he lands a legal punch. If three of the five judges push the button for a fighter within one second, he gets a point. Fine. But the problem is that very often one, two, sometimes even three of the judges are not able to actually see where a punch lands--the fighters' bodies, or the referee, is blocking their view. The result is that many good punches result in no score. My prescription: increase the number of judges. Put two (or even three) on each side of the ring, so more of them will have an unobstructed view at any one time. Then score a point if half of them push the button within a second.

Miscellaneous: The Beijing Olympics were far more spectator-friendly than the Montreal games that I attended in 1976. The announcers in the venues were far more informative than we had. Except for the main stadium, none of the venues had viewing screens in 1976, and even the one there (this was one of the first ones anywhere) showed no replays). We had no cheerleaders at basketball games (forget about the bikini-clad dancers at beach volleyball--the sport wasn't in the Olympics in 1976 (Was it even an organized sport back then?)). We didn't have a pre-show to entertain us before the actual Opening and Closing Ceremonies took place. We were required to arrive an hour early, and then twiddle our thumbs.

Natalie Coughlin had the best smile of the entire games.

Sometime since 1976, I think fairly recently, gymnastics changed its competition format somewhat. First, they eliminated the compulsory exercises in the team competition. It got extremely boring watching gymnast after gymnast do the exact same thing, especially since these exercises were rather easy compared to the optional ones they did in the competition. (And with the women's floor exercise, they all used the same music!) Also, previously all of the athletes competed on all of the apparatuses (apparati?--I guess not) in the team competition. Now they have specialists. This has increased the average skill of the athletes actually competing (though I suspect is has made the selection of the team members a whole lot more difficult).

The floor they use for the gymnastics floor exercises is a whole lot more bouncy than it was in 1976, I think.

I looked at the nbcolympics.com website the first night of competition, but almost never after that. Besides my not wanting to find out the results of events that were going to be televised later, the live broadcasts on the web had no audio commentary, and very little visual either.

I never had the time nor the inclination to look at NBC's auxiliary channels very much. They had channels for basketball, soccer and boxing, plus one general one, all in high-definition, using MSNBC and CNBC among others. In addition, they occasionally had broadcasts on other channels--for instance, they had a couple of hours of the equestrian events on the Oxygen Channel, at least some of the days.

I doubt all of the Chinese women gymnasts are 16 years old as the current rules require, but I'm not sure they should have such a rule. I'd rather see minimum height and/or weight rules--that might reduce the over-emphasis on tumbling skills that we currently see. They certainly would be easier to enforce.

It was great watching the U.S. men's basketball team, the "Redeem Team," win the gold, after its bronze medal performance in 2004. It was great watching all these millionaire superstars put the team first and themselves second--especially the ones that rarely were used in the game. And it was very classy of them to drape their medals around their coach's neck for a team picture--coaches don't get a medal, only the athletes themselves.

My "Olympic records": The number of hits my glob got from people looking for information on Mary Carillo was huge--nearly 15,000 over the course of the two weeks. Each day about 95% of my visitors went directly to my Mary Carillo lesbian? post. The single day high: 2,228. (This last week it went down, of course, but there was still some residual Carillo effect. And it went back into triple figures yesterday, as she's now back here in New York, broadcasting from the U.S. Open.)

Weekly free associations

1. Groceries :: list


2. Deodorant :: spray


3. Psychic :: rip-off


4. Cherries :: pits


5. Spooky :: Halloween


6. Yogurt :: plain


7. Kitchen :: cabinet


8. Nothing personal :: ha!


9. Be nice :: I wish


10. Delivery :: Home

From Unconscious Mutterings.

Plat du jour

Internet radio weirdness

I'm listening to the Wisconsin football game via Yahoo! Sports. They transmit the statewide network radio broadcast. It's really funny sitting here in my Manhattan apartment listening to ads for farm equipment and soybean seeds.

Headline fail

John McCain Pick from Left Field: Sarah Who?

No, she's from right field. In fact, she's over the foul line.

From Overheard in the Office

IT guy: Your laptop is not booting up because you have a stuck function key. What happened, anyway?

Rep (refusing to make eye contact): Yeah, I ... uhhh, think I dropped something on it.

It guy: Like what?!

Rep: Ummm yeah, well, like my fist.

via Overheard in the Office, Aug 28, 2008

Question of the day

Can Gov. Palin spell "potato?"

Obama goes to the ball park and hits a home run

Some people, especially Republicans, say they are underwhelmed by Obama's acceptance speech. They expected (or at least wanted) a fiery over-the-top call to the Democratic troops to go out and spread the liberal word to rest of America. Instead, Obama delivered a forceful, but controlled, summary of the failures of the Bush-McCain program and a rationale for electing him President. He laid out specifics. He looked for areas of agreement, and gave little ammunition to those that would want to wedge off hunks of undecided voters. It was precisely the speech that was needed at this point.

Sorry, Republicans. Obama isn't going to be a predictable, easy target for you.

Plat du jour

Only 1 Michigan? I dunno.

That is to say, I don't know if that's what the license plate means. I do know there is only one Michigan (unless you count Upper Michigan as a different one, of course).

Semi-random thoughts

● As you may have surmised, I was pre-occupied with the Olympics for a couple weeks. (I'll put together a post with my thoughts on the Games sometime soon.) This week it's the Democratic National Convention and the U.S. Tennis Open that are taking up my time--not to mention the pile of mail that accumulated while I was watching the Olympics. I will try to resume my posting frequency, however.

● Since I finally shook off the cold that was plaguing me for a couple weeks, I've resumed exercising every day. Yay me!

● I don't remember ever needing to repair any of my refrigerators in my entire life even once. But now it's twice for the current one. It's making a strange, groaning noise (which, strangely, stops when I open the freezer drawer). I will grant that this is the first one that has an ice-maker/cold water dispenser (which is what failed the first time), but it sure seems that they don't make them the same way they used to. (UPDATE: Unsurprisingly, it was the ice maker motor. We were advised that as long as it's continuing to make ice it isn't worth replacing. Also, turning up the thermostat (i.e. letting the freezer get a little warmer) might make the noise disappear.)

● I think it's a little sad that some of Hillary Clinton's supporters can't get over the fact that she lost (a couple of my Facebook friends continue to post anti-unity things). What I've noticed is that some of the most vehement Hillary die-hards are gay men. They seem to have invested so much of their own identity in her campaign. It’s as if they feel that having a woman president is as close to having a gay man elected as they’ll ever get.

● On Saturday the University of Wisconsin Badgers start the football season with a game against the Akron Zips. The Zips???!! Who in their right mind names an athletic team the Zips? (I sure hope they're no relation to Appalachian State.)

Weekly free associations

1. Cry :: laugh


2. Stretch :: out


3. Efficient :: good


4. Brunch :: lunch


5. Afro :: hair


6. Preheat :: oven


7. Delicious :: apple


8. Global warming :: crisis


9. Actions :: reactions


10. Ride :: walk

Plat du jour

Hair?

Plat du jour

No, this is your car.

Weekly free association

1. Signature :: line


2. Olympics :: marathon


3. 100% :: pure


4. Damn! :: it


5. Gold :: fish


6. Fresh and natural :: advertisement


7. Fraction :: part


8. Hurry :: up


9. Summer :: Winter


10. 29th :: 30th

Plat du jour

Plat du jour

Plat du jour

Let's hear it for bad writing

The winners of San Jose State University's 26th annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest have been announced. The grand prize, given for the worst example of an opening sentence of an imaginary novel, went to Garrison Spik of Washington, D.C. for

Theirs was a New York love, a checkered taxi ride burning rubber, and like the city their passion was open 24/7, steam rising from their bodies like slick streets exhaling warm, moist, white breath through manhole covers stamped "Forged by DeLaney Bros., Piscataway, N.J."

My favorite division of the competition is for "Vile Puns." The winner:

Vowing revenge on his English teacher for making him memorize Wordsworth's "Intimations of Immortality," Warren decided to pour sugar in her gas tank, but he inadvertently grabbed a sugar substitute so it was actually Splenda in the gas.

An opening sentence doesn't have to be long to be bad. There was this in the "Miscellaneous Dishonorable Mentions:"

She had the kind of body that made a man want to have sex with her.

Another "Olympic" record

Yesterday my glob had 1,223 visitors. Well over 90% went straight (tee-hee) to Mary Carillo lesbian?. (Anyone interested in my opinion on the matter should click on the link to my post.)

Plat du jour

NOICANT.

Happy birthday to my glob

It's three years old today. I've published 1,151 posts in that time. My first.

Well, it was an experiment at that point. I didn't know what I was doing. (OK, who said I still don't?)

(Hmmm, in writing this I noticed I have 9 posts in draft that I never published. I'll have to look into that.)

35,000 visitors!

My glob just received its 35,000th visitor. It only took about three months for the last 5,000. Thank you, Mary Carillo.

BTW, yesterday did not break my "Olympic record" for visitors in a single day. But it did come close: 979.

Plat du jour

Jaguars say "woofff?"

Mini-rants

● Why do the clementines in the current bag have so many seeds?

● I wish Tim Daggett would give a little more technical description when commentating on the Olympics gymnastics. I don't need him to tell me me something is "crazy hard."

● I wish this cold would go away.

● McAfee's patch doesn't work. Its Anti-Spam program still crashes my browser often. Grrr.

My Olympic records

I guess Mary Carillo's first broadcast stint at the Olympics was Sunday. So I wasn't surprised when my previous record of 278 visitors to my glob (set during Wimbledon) was smashed. I got 657 hits, mostly people wanting to know her sexuality, marital status, etc.

But that was just the prelude. Yesterday I got 1,001 visitors.

Plat du jour

The funniest cat picture I've ever seen

more cat pictures

Plat du jour

A James Bond fan, I guess. Among films I preferred From Russia with Love, though the recent Casino Royale may have equalled it. As far as the books themselves, On Her Majesty's Secret Service was Fleming's best.

Weekly free associations

Sandyshoes found this one at http://subliminal.lunanina.com

1. Month to month :: tenancy


2. Adjusted :: gross income


3. Prank :: juvenile


4. Mop :: up


5. Clarity :: preciseness


6. Parenting :: magazine


7. Glenn :: Falls


8. Fingerprint :: CSI


9. Pineapple :: Street


10. Attorney :: lawyer

Plat du jour

No, I haven't dropped off the face of the earth

I haven't posted in quite a while. The motel's Internet connection never worked properly after my previous post. We were able to get wi-fi access for limited periods at the public library in Lee later in the week, but there wasn't enough time to post. Since I got back to NY on Sunday, I've been suffering from a major cold, and sleeping more than usual--though it strangely let up a bit for one day, and I was able to get out. But the main thing I've been doing is to try to catch up on my e-mail and other Internet things, and my snail mail--which I still haven't done completely. And now the Olympics have started, which have grabbed most of my waking hours since yesterday evening. But I will get back to my glob.

First report from the Berkshires

We're up here in the Berkshires at the "Quality Inn." I suppose that's an accurate description--it doesn't say what level quality. Things got off to a rocky start when I noticed the door to our room didn't lock, at least from the outside. The next morning the motel owner (whose English leaves something to be desired) went out and got a maintenance man--telephoning him hadn't worked. I could see why--the maintenance man's English was far worse. I couldn't understand him at all. But he did fix the door lock problem, by wedging up the other door jamb, the one with the hinges! Somehow, that worked, allowing the lock to engage.

Occasionally the motel wi-fi works. This is the first time it's been up long enough to do more that check our e-mail.














At least the view from our room's nice little porch is good.

We did hear a very nice concert Saturday at the Berkshire Choral Festival, conducted by New York's own Kent Tritle: Handel's Solomon. Yesterday we went into Great Barrington and saw Mamma Mia! during a rainstorm. It was quite cute and silly. The movie, not the storm. That was severe enough to knock down tree limbs and cut the electricity in places.

Vacation time

We're off to the scenic Berkshires for a week+. Maybe I'll be able to blog from there.

Plat du jour

I was a Badger 70.

Plat du jour

One for the Irony File

Flight with 7 congressmen makes emergency landing

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A Continental Airlines flight carrying former presidential candidate Ron Paul and six other members of Congress to Washington, D.C., made an emergency landing in New Orleans on Tuesday after a loss in cabin pressure.

The seven congressmen, all from Texas, were trying to get back in time for a Tuesday night vote on an aviation safety bill when the flight landed without incident, a spokesman for one of the representatives said...

How much is that kitty in the window?

In a Lexington Ave. pet store window.

Plat du jour

My week in review

Sunday: We returned to the Metropolitan Museum to see the rest of the Turner exhibition, that we started the previous week. I was most impressed with his watercolors. Afterwards we had a few minutes to go to their roof-top sculpture space to see the Jeff Koons works they have up there. They're marvelous--especially the balloon dog.

Wednesday: My LGBT bar association board meeting was cancelled, so I had to improvise. First, I grabbed a bit to eat at the Zipper Factory Tavern. Then I went downtown to the Parkside Lounge to hear R.U.B.--Robert Urban's 80's rock cover band. Though the air conditioning had failed, it was still a lot of fun.

After that I went up to the Monster Bar, where I was joined by some friends for some dancing and Jesse Volt's drag show.

(At the request of one of my readers, from now on I will add a note listing what I wear when I present as a woman.)

Wardrobe: Yellow V-neck t-shirt with poofy sleeves, and a white flower-print skirt

Thursday: To celebrate our 20th anniversary, we started with a nice dinner at Marseille, followed by a performance of Boeing, Boeing--a revival of a 60's comedy about an American in Paris with three fiancées, all airline stewardesses, as they were called back then. It was very silly, and the main character (who, it became apparent, was the friend of the guy with the fiancées, not the guy himself) was not terribly well-defined, but it was hilarious. Christine Baranski was great as the French housekeeper, but my favorite was Gina Gershon as the Italian fiancée (the other two were American and German). My fantasy would be to look like her in this part.

Friday: We took a sunset cruise to look at the Waterfalls. I wasn't terribly impressed, but it was a nice night to be out in the harbor, with a beer in hand. My wife had never taken one of these cruises before so the whole thing was new experience for her. Afterwards we stopped and bought a real balloon dog to remind us of the Jeff Koons one. Then we went back up to our neighborbood Italian restaurant for a pasta dinner.

Saturday: We went downtown to the Joyce Theater to see the modern dance group Pilobolus. We used to see a performance of their's every year, but they got rather repetitive. But after some 10 or 15 years we decided to give them another try, particularly because one of the pieces' co-creators was Basil Twist, whom we both like very much. "Darkness and Light" mostly used silhouettes seen on a white cloth sheet, which were created by dancers moving in front of colored lights. There was also a short segment that seemed to be sparkling lights projected directly on the sheet--I'm guessing this was the main contribution of Twist's. There were some interesting parts, but whole thing was rather weak.

This was preceded, though, by "B'zyrk." This was a long, wild dance piece with 6 performers dressed and dancing crazily, to some crazy-sounding music. (We couldn't decide if the lyric was in some real, Eastern European language unrecognizable to us or completely made-up.) It was my favorite. It combined humor with Pilobolus' trademark acrobatic balancing.

After intermission there were a couple of older pieces, which reminded me of why we stopped going to Pilobolus for a decade or so. But I'm glad we stayed, because at the end of the curtain call the almost naked dancers took turns sliding across the stage on a thin sheet of water, sort of like an old slip-n-slide (except it was just some water on the bare floor!), holding various poses and doing stunts. They seemed to be having a great time, and the audience had one also just watching them.

We followed that up with a pretty good dinner at a sort of French restaurant up the street. The dessert soufflé was very yummy.

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.