Websearch of the day

moma membership desk cute guy
Sorry, I can't help you with this one. Besides, I suspect there are a number of such guys someone might consider cute.

Plat du jour

I sure hope s/he is a better lawyer than a speller.

Living with wild turkeys

I've posted about humans sharing their habitats with bears, moose, raccoons, coyotes and mountain lions. Now it's wild turkeys: Wild Turkeys Show Up in Detroit Suburb.

I had one once fly across the road in front of me as I drove through some woods in western Massachusetts. They are big.

Come to think of it, there's at least one that's been seen at various spots on the west side of Manhattan for years--mostly Battery Park. One was seen in the West Village a few days ago.

Brief update

I'm taking a moment out of self-imposed blogging cessation (outside of the occasional coyote, vanity plate, etc. post that really doesn't take any significant amount of time to do) for a quick update. I've added another friend's blog to my bloglist: Erica's Cross Currents. Since I also have a self-imposed cessation of reading blogs, I haven't actually read very much of it. But from a quick scan it definitely seems worthwhile. Erica is a friend from the myHusbandBetty boards and even IRL occasionally--like last night, when I ran into her at a bar.

I was there after the NYC Stonewall Democrats Cocktail Party-Reception-21st Anniversary Party-Fundraiser-Annual Awards event. It was very nice. I managed not to be too late despite having to make an emergency run (almost literally) to a shoestore because I had forgotten to make sure my shoes were in my suitcase when I went to CDI to change. (Fortunately there's a Payless just a block from the CDI apartment, and I was actually able to find a nice pair of white platform wedges (the platform-wedge being fake cork) that are quite comfortable.) The speeches were relatively short (I think they got a lot of criticism about last year's event), the food and drinks were quite satisfactory in quality and quantity, and I got to talk to some people that I hadn't seen in a while.

What else is new? I have now surpassed 200 friends on MySpace--I've added a bunch of rock groups, to go along with my assortment of dead composer "friends." I found a cousin of mine whom I haven't seen in 40+ years and called him up (thank you Google).

Now I've got to get back to work on the CDI website.

Living with coyotes IX

New Jersey: Authorities Confused if Coyote Killed Small Dog

Plat du jour

Living with coyotes VIII

Cops Kill Coyote Near Where Child was Attacked

Living with coyotes VII

Second Attacked by Coyote in N.J.

I'm back--sort of.

I'm back in New York. I think. 30 hour days are weird. Or perhaps my brain just took a later flight.

There was no mad dash across Paris. We got to the Bordeaux airport early and got on the standby list for the earlier plane to Charles deGaulle (at the cost of $200 each--remember, Expedia is incompetent). We were first on the list, and there were several no-shows, so we happily flew off to Paris--where we got to wait in a temporary terminal for three hours.

But I did get to see the Eiffel Tower. It was on a billboard when finally we got to JFK.

Hello, again

I'm still in France trying to post from the computer in our chambre d'hôte (like a bed and breakfast that also serves dinner). It has a French keyboard, and some of the letters and all of the punctuation marks are in different places. So I hope this comes out right.

We're right outside a little town in the Dordogne, in southwest France. The food is usually great, and never bad. Today we visited a re-creation of the Lascaux caves, with all of the great cave paintings from 10,000 years ago. It's a guided tour--ours was in English, and the guide was pretty good at it. The caves they built are an exact copy, and the paintings were recreated by an artist using the same materials, and the same techniques, as well as they can determine them. The ancient painters were quite impressive, using some rudimentary perspective, and one showing an animal going from standing to a fast run in successive pictures.

Well, it's almost time for dinner. Maybe I'll be able to post more later.

Hello from France

I'm off on vacation in France--Toulouse at the moment. We had a little while in Paris. At least I think it was Paris--I never got a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower the entire time, so I'm not really sure. We had some nice meals, stopped in St. Sulpice (literally across the street from our hotel) to see the "Rose Line" of daVinci Code fame (it's not really called that), and did a short visit to the little Delacroix museum, which contains his last residence and studio, but none of his important paintings. We also went to the Sainte Chapelle, with its magnificent stained glass windows (we had only been there at night for a concert before). Then around the corner to the Conciergerie, which was a prison for hundreds of years up to 1914. There was a recreation of Marie Antoinette's cell. Then on to the Marais, where my wife stocked up on books from a Jewish bookstore.

We wasted an entire day trying to change my wife's flight back from Bordeaux to Paris--we have too little time to switch airports because we fly into Orly airport, but our flight to New York leaves from Charles deGaulle airport, all the way on the other side of the city. Expedia should never have allowed me to book it in the first place (Air France calls it an "illegal connection.")

I won't bore you with all the messy details of the lost day, which included a trip to a non-existent United Airlines office and one out to Charles deGaulle. (you can get a bad meal in Paris--just go to Charles deGaulle). Expedia's solution to our problem? Mail the ticket back to them in the U.S.!! Right--like I'd trust them to get a new ticket to us as we float from city to city around southwest France. We'll take our chances on the day of the flight. Maybe Air France will let us take an earlier flight direct to Charles deGaulle. Or maybe we'll have enough time to make a mad dash across Paris from one airport to the other.

Take my advice--check your flight connections very carefully before booking online. Don't count on the computer to stop you from booking difficult or impossible ones. Try to have your ticket issued by the airline which is actually flying whichever segment you are most likely to want to change.

And don't use Expedia. Ever. For Anything. Expedia is incompetent. Expedia is bad. I hate Expedia.

Plat du jour

Living with coyotes VI

Missouri: Coyote Looks but Doesn't Buy at Store

Plat du jour

Plat du jour

So where's TW1N TWO? Or is it TW1N ZERO?

15,000 visitors!

In the rather short period of 25 days (considering I haven't been posting much of anything of substance) this blog has received another thousand visits--a lot of them from people doing searches for the Bucky Badger symbol. The 15,000 mark was passed late on Wednesday.

Someday, soon I hope, I'll have the time to really start writing again (lately I've even cut out reading other people's blogs). I'll reiterate my suggestion to subscribe, via the Feedblitz box on the right. They'll send you an e-mail when I do post something.

Thanks to you all, especially the people that come here on purpose.

Living with coyotes V

Detroit's Urban Coyote Pregnant

Spam of the day (well, yesterday)

Obtain degrees from Prestigious non-accerdited Universities

I'd call it an oxymoron, except I'm not absolutely sure what "non-accerdited" means.

Plat du jour

So you have abs. But how are your pecs?

100 MySpace friends! Wheee!

I just got my 100th friend on MySpace: Patti LuPone! Actually, I could have had more by now, but I'm a little picky--I don't approve requests from spammers, or people with weird profiles. And I did delete one "friend" who kept sending out religious stuff. So join the crowd. Visit my page and put in a friend request.

EDIT: Now it's 101! Hi Ray!

Plat du jour

I found this on a large Cadillac near Lincoln Center. It's good to see that Wolfgang is doing so well.

Living with coyotes IV

Michigan: A Coyote Visits Downtown: It's Captured Near RenCen
New Jersey: Boy foils coyote attack on baby nephew

Living with bears XXX

Gee, it's been a long time since I did this. Catching up:
Washington: Injured bear, cub found in east King County
New Jersey: Black Bear Comes Crashing Down From Tree, Bear alert issued in Ocean Township
Wisconsin: Cataract man says his dog saved him from bear, then died
Pennsylvania: Waymart man cleared in bear killing
Arizona: Bear cub up a pole in Avra Valley, workers snap pics
Florida: Bear family flees the tree
Louisiana: Bear in a tree makes for good Easter break story
Virginia: Bear startles some in neighborhood

Spam of the day

Israel Just Have Started World War III

Another websearch--not so weird, but still...

I wonder if the people running the Rochester (Indiana) Telephone Company know they have an employee using their internet connection to do a search for ladys in pantyhose being spyed on

Weird websearch of the day

(so far, at least) pictures of mets bedrooms has this blog at 45th. Sorry, I don't have any pictures of any of the Mets' bedrooms--or any other part of their homes.

Plat du jour

Living with coyotes III

Coyote Visits Chicago Sandwich Shop

Plat du jour

Weird websearch of yesterday

A lot of people find my blog searching for some form of "crossdresser" and some other term(s). But I can't imagine what the searcher who came here looking for crossdresser vegetables really wanted.

Plat du jour

I'm one, too!

Update on the computers

I still have a few things I want to do on the old computer, before I really start to set up the new one. Fortunately the old one has been behaving, except for one day, when it crashed twice (the second time was for a hard disk problem, which it took CHKDSK a long time to recover from).

As far as the Carbonite download, it's still going--nearly 13 days now!

Living with mountain lions

Mountain Lion Spotted Near Calif. School

Plat du jour

Luke's NY colleague?

14,000 visitors

Yesterday this blog surpassed another milestone--thanks to all who have stuck with me (and all those just wandering in).

I see I just passed a second milestone: my previous post was my 800th.

Plat du jour

The butler did it?

I'm still alive, but my computer(s)...?

It's been several days since I posted anything here. While I have been busy, the main reason is that I am "between computers," and it's a bit of a pain to do much of anything. My old one has been slowly dying--audio and video haven't worked right since I installed Service Pack 2, and the DVD drive doesn't work at all (I have a separate CD drive that does work, but playing music on it suffers from the general audio problems--starts and stops, changes in speed, etc.) I tripled my RAM, which helped a little, but not enough.

Then lately the computer has been crashing with increased frequency--several times a week, with more frequent crashes of IE. Occasionally the computer would just reboot itself for no apparent reason. I decided it was time to get a new one.

So I got on the Dell site and configured a new one. I think they estimated a six day wait until it could be built.

It was sitting in my apartment three days later.

BUT, but, what wasn't there was the cable I was to use to transfer the stuff from my old computer to the new one. Dell was shipping that separately. From Texas. By ground.

I did have an alternative, I realized. My hard drive is backed up on the web by Carbonite. I could just download everything to the new computer. Carbonite estimated the 5.5Gigs would take 11 hours (500Meg/hr). I suspected that was a big under-estimate--judging from how long they said it would take to upload it originally, and how long it actually took. I figured it would be about three times their estimate. But 33 hours still wasn't bad. I started it off.

That was Friday night. It is now Thursday afternoon, nearly six days later, and it's still downloading!

The transfer cable did get here Monday, but I haven't had a chance to use it, as I've been busy with a LeGaL board meeting and a CDI meeting and dinner. So I've just been letting the Carbonite download continue. I was going to work on it this afternoon, but a dental crown came out, so I have to run to my dentist in Brooklyn in a little bit to have it reattached. It's always something.

Oh, well

Wisconsin couldn't come back from a poor first half, as they did Friday. They lost 74-68. The basketball season is over.

At least the Wisconsin women's hockey team repeated as national champions.

Weird websearch of the day

transgender wig vanity saw put didn't lists this blog as third.

Don't do that to me, Badgers!

My Wisconsin Badgers almost gave me heart failure with the way they started their first round game in the NCAA men's basketball national championship tournament. They let Texas A&M-Corpus Christi score the first 10 points, and were behind 18 at one point. Late in the first half they finally woke up, though. The final score was 76-63.

Next up, UNLV on Sunday. I hope Wisconsin has gotten whatever it was that was bothering them at the start of the game out of their system for the rest of the tournament. I don't need to tempt heart failure.

My picture

I've always hesitated a bit (OK, more than a bit) to put my picture here, for all the world to see. I'm kind of a private person. And shy. But since I already put it on my MySpace page, I figured it wouldn't hurt.

So there I am, in one of the very few pictures of me that I really like. I was seated, and the photographer was standing. I think he may have been holding the camera above his head, also. So the picture is at a lovely angle that completely hides my double chin, and de-emphasizes my shoulders--and it even shows my cleavage a little (being able to do good cleavage is the big advantage of being a fat crossdresser). Also, I wasn't posing. I never seem to get a good smile when I pose. It always looks unnatural--which it is, of course.

That is not my latest hair-do, though. A few weeks ago I got a new wig. It's a little longer, and a little fuller, with a bit more range of color. If I ever get a nice picture of me in it I'll use that. But don't hold your breath.

I'm also wearing one of my favorite pair of earrings in the picture--but I lost one of them recently. I really do miss being able to wear them.

The Pentagon finally begins to get it

Pentagon: Iraq in Some Ways in Civil War

Now, if they had just read my blog, they could have known this as early as last May.

Now this is news

Rep. Stark Applauded for Atheist Outlook
Wow, a self-identified atheist in Congress! It really says something about the power of religion in America when you have members of Congress coming out as gay or lesbian before you have one coming out as an atheist.

Actually, that's not quite accurate. It's not the power of religion, it's their fear of that power, that has kept atheist politicians in the closet. Politicians try not to alienate any potential voter, so there is a big incentive for them not to disclose their (non)beliefs.

So, bravo, Rep. Stark. God bless you.

Oops.

Strike that.

Why is this news?

Pope Reaffirms Traditional Views
This is like saying "Sun Rises in the East." If it rose some place else, it would be news. Doing the expected is not news--especially to people who who have little interest in what the subject of the headline does in the first place.

On, Wisconsin! (hic)

I'm drunk. 5 Gin and Tonics are the culprits, though I have no idea how much of the last one I actually consumed.

The occasion was the Wisconsin-Michigan State basketball game, which was a quarterfinal of the Big Ten Tournament. A bar, relatively close to where I live, has been hosting telecasts of University of Wisconsin (my alma mater both undergrad and law school) football and basketball games for the last 2 or 3 years. I never went before--I could watch most of the games at home, and they were mostly on the weekends, which are reserved for couple's activities, per the compromise with my wife. But she was doing something else last night, and the telecast was only available on a pay channel--I'd have to pay I think $90 for a half-season package to watch it at home. So I went to the bar to watch it.

I wasn't quite OITP (Oldest In The Place, a frequent occurence)--I did find a guy who had graduated 6 years before I did. But most of the others were young enough to be my children. I was talking to a couple guys from the Class of 2002--which means I had finished law school, come to NY, worked as a lawyer for 5 years, and switched careers to computer programming before they were born.

The game was pretty much of a yawn. Wisconsin scored the first 10 points, and were never less than 5 points ahead. The final score was 70-53. I walked home afterwards--not taking advantage of the bar's deal where everything is half price if Wisconsin wins.

It's 7 hours later, and I'm still pretty drunk.

Television alert!

In the last couple months the soap opera "All My Children" (AMC) has featured a transgender character, Zarf/Zoe. Zarf realizes he's really a woman when the woman he's in love with turns out to be lesbian.

I said it was a soap opera.

Ridiculous plotline notwithstanding, AMC has tried to get its TG character right. They have consulted with TG and LGBT groups, and the actor playing Zarf/Zoe, Jeffrey Carlson, has done a lot of research on his own. (I last saw him on Broadway in Tartuffe.) Also, it happens that one of the AMC writers is the friend of a trans friend of mine, and there's been some good communication there in keeping things as real as can be, within the strictures of a "daytime drama."

The show decided to show Zoe going to a TG support group meeting. But instead of trying to script one, they brought in a half-dozen real trans people, and shot an improvised session. My friend Betty Crow (the subject of the recently published She's Not the Man I Married by Helen Boyd) was one of them. The group leader was played by Jennifer Finney Boylan, author of She's Not There--whom I know a little from the myHusbandBetty discussion boards, where I'm a moderator.

It will be shown this Thursday and Friday, Mar 8-9. It's on ABC at 1:00pm ET (and PT, I guess). It may only be 5 minutes or so each day, and most probably will focus on Zarf/Zoe. How much of the real people's stories will be shown is unknown.

I was invited to the wrap party after they shot it, and got to meet everyone. Some of the people's stories are very moving. I hope they get aired. I've got my video recorder all set up.

Weird websearch of the day

Google had this blog first for DIET JELLO GLOB. Runner-up: disposable choir robe, which had me 16th--down from first, a year-and-a-half ago.

R-VFC: The Singer/Quand j’étais chanteur

My second film at the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2007 was The Singer/Quand j’étais chanteur. The synopsis was somewhat interesting, and Gérard Depardieu is a superb actor, so I went. In this film he plays a small town dance hall singer. He did all his own singing--which is just about the only thing to recommend this mess of a movie. That, and looking at his co-star Cécile De France, one of those few women who can cut their hair very short and still look absolutely gorgeous.

Plat du jour

On a superstretch limo.

Blog list addition

I've added Annie's Gardens in Bloom - An untraditional love story, written by the spouse of a transitioning transsexual. Annie is one of the newer members of the myHusbandBetty boards, and her posts there and on her new blog are informative and well-written. They show that a divorce should not be assumed to be part of the transition of a married person from one gender to another.

Quick review: La Vie en Rose / La Môme

The opening night feature of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2007 was a biopic of French singer Edith Piaf, La Vie en Rose. That's actually the American title. In France it's simply called La Môme, which was Piaf's nickname. La Vie en Rose was her signature song.

Unless one knows a fair amount about Piaf's life, a viewer will probably find this film confusing. I don't, so I did. Flash-backs and flash-aheads abound, frequently with a title on the screen, but too often without. Characters appear without identification. Maybe it's common knowledge in France who her boxer-lover was, but I had no idea. I did figure out who Marlene Dietrich was--but only after she introduced herself to Piaf as "Marlene." A husband suddenly appears at the end. There were lots of loose ends. At best one (at least a previously uninformed one like me) will walk out wanting to know more.

But that's often the way it is with French films. They frequently don't have everything wrapped up and tied with a neat bow. La Vie en Rose does give one the sense of Piaf's life, I think. The details are secondary.

The performances are excellent, particularly Marion Cotillard (who was present at the screening, along with the director) as Piaf. She did not do the singing, however. Her lipsyncing was great, though (and I've seen a lot of lipsyncing)--they used Piaf's recordings for the later songs, and another singer for her earlier work.

The film was released in France only two weeks ago, and apparently is doing well. It will be released in the U.S. in June. So if you're interested, you have time to do a little research before seeing it. You may enjoy it more than I did.

I have 67 friends on MySpace!

I have a MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/capricebellefleur I'm sure I'm not the oldest person with one, but I'd place a small wager I'm in the upper 5% age-wise. Having a MySpage page makes me hip and with it, I guess--though "hip" and "with it" are probably so out-dated that it proves I'm not hip and with it.

Anyhow, I actually set this up almost a year ago. A few people on the myHusbandBetty boards said they had MySpace pages, so I got one, and added them as friends. Then I did nothing with it until this month. I wanted to check if there was any news about Lisa Jackson and Girl Friday--Lisa had broken away from the band. (The group's page has since been reinitialized.) There wasn't any, but I saw someone I knew on their top friends list, so I went to their page, and clicked on "Add to Friends." Then I saw someone on their top friends list, and went there, and an hour or two later I had asked several dozen people to add me. I shouldn't say people. Some are bands, some are organizations.

Many are drag performers or musicians I know at least slightly. The great thing about having them as MySpace friends is that they send out bulletins about their upcoming performances. I did get Harvey Fierstein and Margaret Cho also.

Otherwise, I haven't done much with my page. My single blog entry there just directs people here.

So if you have a MySpace page, go to mine, and click on "Add to Friends." If your profile is not too weird, I'll add you (I have rejected a few). Everyone can always use more friends.

Correction--slight

Last August I noted that I had gotten a websearch for "mary carillo lesbian," after having gotten one for "transgender mary carillo." I explained that she's not lesbian, she's married to a man.

Today someone found my blog searching for mary carillo marriages. I happened to notice in one of the other posts Google found was that Mary is divorced, for a number of years, actually. So my August statement about her being married was in error.

But I've seen nothing to indicate she's lesbian. Or transgender.

Observation of the day

The easiest way to clean the globe from a chandelier is to put it in the dishwasher.

20 years!

20 years ago today I first met my wife. I won't say it was love at first sight, but it was certainly like at first sight--I asked her for a date the next evening.

Plat du jour

On a Saab, of course.

13,000 visitors

Despite the fact I've curtailed my postings until I can get caught up with things, people seem to keep coming to see my glob. I've been getting a number of visitors looking for the artwork in the exhibitions I've seen--as well as the usual background noise of searches for kicking testicles, Clayelle Dalferes, and Caprice Bourret. Plus all kinds of combinations of crossdressing and things.

Since I'm not posting every day, some people have stopped checking, I notice. To them (who probably aren't reading this, but some might be), I suggest using the Feedblitz subscription service in the box in the column to the right. They'll send you an e-mail the day after I post something new. It's free.

And to those of you who are still visiting, thanks!

So much for being number one

Oh, well. One day after reaching the top spot in the AP poll, Wisconsin lost to Michigan State, 64-55. Sunday's game still looms large--in fact, I suspect Wisconsin may have had their minds more on Ohio State than Michigan State.

We're number one! We're number one!

The University of Wisconsin men's basketball team was ranked the best team in country in this week's Associated Press poll. Go Badgers! I can't wait for the big game against number two Ohio State on Sunday.

Actually, I can wait. Besides, they have to play Michigan State first.

I'm Batman!

Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0
created with QuizFarm.com

I'm Batman! They had to give me a tie-breaker question, because Batman tied with Maximus.

Actually, I'd prefer to be Lara Croft.

You scored as Batman, the Dark Knight. As the Dark Knight of Gotham, Batman is a vigilante who deals out his own brand of justice to the criminals and corrupt of the city. He follows his own code and is often misunderstood. He has few friends or allies, but finds comfort in his cause.

Maximus 63% Batman, the Dark Knight 63% Lara Croft 54% The Amazing Spider-Man 54% James Bond, Agent 007 46% Neo, the "One" 46% The Terminator 42% El Zorro 33% William Wallace 33% Captain Jack Sparrow 17% Indiana Jones 13%

Plat du jour

I didn't know that Luke had moved to Pennsylvania.

Plat du jour

It says SNOW PUP. I know it's a little hard to read, but it was snowing.

Living with moose II

First there was this one. Now we have 'Bullwinkle Is Going to Stomp Somebody'.

Plat du jour

Happy Darwin Day!

Celebrate the birthday of the discoverer of evolution, Charles Darwin. (He was born the exact same day as Abraham Lincoln!)

No, you don't have to take a monkey to lunch.

Weird websearch of the day

hermann goering crossword puzzle lists my blog as third.

Template adjustments

I have modified my template, taking advantage of the new automatic customization features of the new Blogger. The main difference is the list of labels at the right. A few minor changes in the layout of the sidebar were necessary, because the trade-off of the ease of automatic customization is a decrease of flexibility.

I've also fixed up my blog list a bit, eliminating one dead link, and updating another. The order is slightly different, I think--I had to enter each entry separately (thank goodness for cut and paste).

Labels

I have gone back and added labels to many of my posts. I think I have at least one for the 300 most recent posts, and for some of the older ones as well. So now, if you want to see just the posts of a certain type, such as films, or the plats du jour, you can do it with one click.

It wasn't the most thorough job--most of them were done just by looking at the post title. But it's a start.

Plat du jour--guest submission

One of my friends from the MyHusbandBetty boards found this one. Thanks!

Warning! A very addictive game (and it's free)

Don't say I didn't warn you, Chuzzle is a huge time-waster. It's one of the reasons I haven't posted anything since Friday. I just got finished with my best game yet: 445,855 points (level 14).

That's a basketball he's holding!

There's a new minor league basketball player from China who's 7'9" tall--the tallest in the history of professional basketball. I can't get over the size of his hands.

New Blogger

I have converted this blog to the new Blogger system. So far, so good. The only problem I've seen so far is that the top of "caprice's glob" is cut off. (EDIT: I figured out a way to get around that problem.)

The only big new feature, as far as I can see, is that I can now classify my posts. This one is going under "my glob."

Pla d jou

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Talking back at the headlines

From the AP "Top News" on excite.com.

• Boston Publicity Ploy Leads to 2 Arrests
Stupid people.

• Senate Foes of Troop Buildup Join Forces
That's nice, but Bush will still ignore them.

• Chavez Gains Free Rein in Venezuela
Uh oh. Poor Venezuela. He sounds like Castro only with money.

• House Approves Huge Spending Bill
Don't they do this every year?

• Comedian Al Franken to Run for Senate
Yay!!! Where do I send my donation?

• Molly Ivins Dies of Cancer at 62
This is sad, very sad. She was the one who first called Bush II "Shrub." We lost a good one.

• Oils May Cause Breast Growth in Boys
Does it work on 58-year-olds?

• Google 4Q Earnings Nearly Triple
Another stock I didn't buy.

Weird websearch of the day (yesterday, that is)

why basement heat cold and only hits 62 degrees daytimes, explain ?? lists my blog at number 20.

Plat du jour

.

Still a yawn

A year ago I pronounced the headline "Oklahoman Crowned Miss America in Vegas" my Yawn of the Day. Today's yawn news story: Oklahoman Wins Miss America Crown.

Plat du jour

.

Ring out the old, ring in the new

...phone, that is.

Our answering machine died. It must have been at least 10 years old, maybe even 15. It used a pair of microcassettes. I remember when I bought it digital machines were very new, and I didn't trust them. I felt safer with tapes that I could actually see.

But that was then, and this is now. I knew the replacement one would be digital. But a quick check of a couple electronics store websites told me that a direct replacement might be impossible. Neither store carried any standalone answering machines--not even one-line units, let alone a two-line one that I needed. All answering machines now seem to be built into telephones. So I had to buy a telephone.

That got me thinking. Our telephone "system" consisted of a pair of two-line speakerphone caller ID wired units (pictured on the left), one in my office, one in my wife's, which is where the answering machine was stationed. We also had a smaller phone with a separate caller ID display, both for 2 lines, in the TV room. (This phone requires no electricity. Everyone should keep such a phone around, whether they use it normally or not, because phones that require AC power will not work in a blackout, while these still will.)

In addition to all that, there were two old wireless phones, fed by a transmitter unit--both 2-line Caller ID units. They had intercom capability. We kept them in the kitchen and the bedroom normally. The only problem was, they didn't work very well--apparently the signal was not very good at penetrating the walls. I tried moving the base unit around, but it didn't help. Basically, we just used them for their caller ID screens--if we saw that it was someone we wanted to talk to, we'd run to a phone that actually worked.

For a long time my wife has really wanted an intercom, from the kitchen to my office, and one between our offices. I tried a RadioShack wireless set, with three units. It would work from the kitchen to my office, but not in my wife's office. Apparently the signal actually travels through the AC power lines. The problem is, we combined apartments, but we did not integrate the electrical system (I get a separate bill for each old apartment every month). The kitchen and my office are in one of the old apartments, and my wife's office is in the other, and apparently they're on different transformers, so the intercom won't work.

Thus, I figured I could kill three birds with one stone by buying a wireless 2-line intercom-capable answering-machine equipped system with three caller ID speakerphone handsets. Which is what I did. (A handset in its charger base is pictured on the right.) I put the base unit with the answering machine in my wife's office--though messages can be retrieved from any of the handsets. The base unit has a built-in charger for my wife's handset. Then I put one of the handsets in my office, and one in the kitchen. I took out both of the old wireless phones (I've got to remember to disconnect the base unit--it's back among the rats' nest of wires, modem and router under the table next to my desk, blocked by my file cabinet, which sits under the table.) I put the phone that used to be in my wife's office into the bedroom--fortunately, there's enough room on my night table. The phone in the TV room remains as it was.

As I suspected, the new phones work through the walls just fine.

So now we have full phone capability in the kitchen and the bedroom, as well as in the offices and the TV room, and a 3-way intercom (four if you count the base unit, but I can't imagine a situation where my wife would be in her office, but her handset wasn't). And we have an answering machine that works.

Plus, I gained a large bit of free space on my desk.

Double election week

A short note on why I'm posting even less than the last few weeks. Monday was my first meeting as a member of the board or LeGaL, the LGBT Law Assn. of Greater New York. There I was elected treasurer of the group (I've been treasurer of LeGaL's charitable foundation for the last few months). I was also reappointed to the foundation board. After that meeting most of us went over to the Diversity Reception of the New York State Bar Assn. Conference.

Tonight is the annual business meeting and biannual elections of Crossdressers International (CDI). I am running for my fourth term as treasurer, and for the first time I actually have someone running against me.

In between all this I've been going to the New York Jewish Film Festival--two films last evening alone. Nothing great, perhaps I'll have time to post short reviews in a couple days.

Plats du jour

Those Mets get their fans from all over the globe.

Plat du jour

A lawyer who practices on court and in court?

Living with bears XXIX

Oregon: Please, bear with him, Bye-bye bear: He's gone
Wisconsin: Bear cub finds its way into Saxon tree

Surprising factoid of the day

Americans are the most frequent moviegoers in the world, going to a flick an average of 5.04 times a year. Rounding out the top 5 are: Australia (4.32), Spain (2.95) France (2.91) and the U.K. (2.82 times).

from the Quad Cinema E-news

I would have thought the French would be higher.

More on Buchwald's death

To follow up on my post of yesterday, Art Buchwald's last column has now been released. But it was actually written last February when he went into the hospice. More recently, he did a video interview with the New York Times, for its new "The Last Word" feature, where people get to sort of record their own obituary. In pure Buchwaldian style he opens with, "Hi. I'm Art Buchwald and I just died."

Thanks to David Marc Fischer, for his post, who in turn cites this.

Plat du jour

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The man who wouldn't die finally does

Art Buchwald has finally died. Last March I wrote how he had left the hospice where he had gone to die, after refusing dialysis when his kidneys failed. He lived almost a year in that condition--apparently his kidneys still had a little function.

My original post last March contains Buchwald's place in my life, so there's no need to repeat it. American journalism has lost one of its best, and he will be missed by a great many.

12,000 visitors

Yesterday this blog recorded its 12,000th visit. Despite my decrease in posting, people still seem to want to read it. It's not just people doing searches for Clayelle Dalferes or "kicking testicles," both of which do get a stream of people here. What's a bit surprising is that the number of people searching for supermodel Caprice Bourret has greatly decreased of late.

Anyhow, thanks for visiting.

NYJFF: The Rape of Europa

The second film I saw in the New York Jewish Film Festival was
The Rape of Europa. This is a documentary on what happened to the art treasures in Europe during World War II. Based on Lynn H. Nicholas' book of the same name, the film covers a great many facets of what the Nazis, Soviets, French, Italians and Americans did before, during and after the hostilities. It also covers looted Judaica, and even touches upon the ordinary houshold goods the Nazis confiscated from the Jews of Paris.

Some of this was familiar to me, at least in general. I knew that the Nazis, Hermann Goering in particular, grabbed whatever they could get their hands on. I didn't know that the Nazi officials were just emulating Hitler in amassing their art collections. I knew they suppressed the work of Jewish artists, though I did not realize they were also opposed to all non-representational art. I knew Hitler was a failed artist, though I had never heard the story of how he was rejected by an art school in Vienna, by a board with a number of Jews on it. And I had never seen examples of his work, which are shown in the film. I did not know of the museum he planned to build to hold his art collection in Linz, his birthplace and intended final resting place.

But the main thing new to me was the existence of the American and other nationality "Monuments Men"--a small group of art historians assigned to protect any monuments and artwork that were recaptured. Their stories were the most compelling part of the film, along with an interview of a French Jew who was assigned to a slave-labor camp, whose task was to process the property confiscated from deported Jewish homes. Eventually, he had to work on his own family's goods!

The Rape of Europa also spent a good bit of time on the restitution of stolen artworks to their rightful owners, or at least to their families. This is a continuing process. The film opens with a depiction of the attempts to regain Gustav Klimt's "The Gold Portrait" of Adele Bloch-Bauer I by Bloch-Bauer's niece, who is interviewed. The Austrian government claimed it and several other Klimt works had been left to them in Bloch-Bauer's 1923 will, and it was exhibited in the Austrian Galerie Belvedere in Vienna. The film ends with the niece's success--after a seven year legal battle it was ruled that the will was negated by the theft by the Nazis and their Austrian allies. The portrait was then purchased by Ronald Lauder (the son of Estee Lauder) for a reported $135 million. He bought it for his Neue Galerie--which is a block from where I'm sitting now!

The film tried to cover a huge amount of ground--too much, in my opinion. Some things were covered in great detail--others were just touched upon, such as why the Nazis never tried to grab any of the Louvre's holdings, which the French evacuated to the south. There was no mention of the fate of the French spy in the Nazis' Paris art looting operation--she managed to record the rightful owners and destinations of all of the art treasures looted from the Jews of France.

The screening, which I saw at the Jewish Museum, was followed by a Q&A with a couple of the film's directors, and Lynn H. Nicholas. They did tie up a few of the loose ends. But the film itself is over-ambitious, and because of that fails to give the full story of several of its topics.

Plat du jour

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NYJFF: Gorgeous! / Comme t'y es belle!

Last night was our first movie at this year's New York Jewish Film Festival, presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, Gorgeous! / Comme t'y es belle! It was billed as the "Sephardic Sex in (sic) the City," But I saw very little that made this film Jewish, let alone Sephardic. Yes, the four main characters were Sephardic Jewish women, and they were seen celebrating Jewish holidays, but that was just about it. Otherwise they were simply upper-middle class Frenchwomen, looking for love, as far as I could tell.

Basically, it was a fun light comedy, definitely in the vein of Sex and the City--unrealistic people doing unlikely things. The main difference was that three of the four women were mothers. The funniest part of the plot was one of the characters' entering into a same-sex civil union with her Arabic au pair, so the latter wouldn't be deported (it also brought in one of the most serious parts of the whole movie, the reaction of the au pair's brother).

The film has sold over a million tickets in France. It probably shattered a lot of people's stereotypes about Sephardic Jewish women there. But I don't think the film said anything about real Sephardic Jewish women in France at all.

Plat du jour

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Back in New York

In case anyone was wondering why I haven't posted anything in the last few days, I was off in Cleveland, meeting with the lawyer and accountant for my mom's estate, and helping my siblings dispose of her stuff. Aside from getting her clothes together for donation, we divided up her costume jewelry (I got a few nice things I'll be able to use). We also shipped a carton of books back home, mostly things that caught my wife's eye.

We cleaned out a dozen huge drawers that sort of served as the house's attic. There was all kinds of old stuff, such my father's course materials from the training he got when he became an IRS agent when he returned from WWII, bank statements from the 50's, and thousands of photos. These were from both sides of my family, going way back to when my father was a young man in the late 30's, and when my mother was a baby in the 20's. And some, from my mother's family, were certainly older than that. My sister was lamenting at the pictures of our grandmother, whom she resembles greatly. She wasn't really happy at how she might look in a few years.

But outside of the pictures of my grandparents and their descendents, we were only guessing at who we were looking at. There's no one left to identify the people pictured. It's a shame, but we threw almost all of those out. We did keep the souvenir documents and photos my grandfather brought back from WWI.

There were also tons of pictures of me as a baby and a small child--I was my parents' first. There were some of my sister, 2½ years younger, and only a few of my brother. I brought back an assortment.

So now I'm home, getting caught up with e-mail, snail mail, paying bills, etc. The transmitter for my wife's internet connection seems to have died. Later I'll go out and get a wi-fi one, since her new notebook computer is equipped for that.

Plat du jour

This is not a good thing for a driver to be.

Smoking and common sense

The City of Bangor, ME passed a law making it illegal to smoke in a car that contains someone under the age of 18. This is the first such law I have ever heard of, but apparently they already have them statewide in Arkansas and Louisiana.

Anything that discourages people from smoking is fine by me.

The thing in the article that really caught my eye, though, was the comment of one of the opponents of the law, who said that most smokers have enough common sense not to smoke around children. Ha! If they had common sense they wouldn't be smoking at all.

Plat du jour

A Little Rascals fan?