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

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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.

The alphabet meme: T

is for time you woke up today: About 9:15, which is actually a little earlier than usual (It's great being retired). That's because I went to bed a little earlier than usual last night--before 2:00.

Plat du jour

The alphabet meme: S

is for status: Well that's certainly an open-ended one. At the moment my Facebook status is: "Caprice Bellefleur is regretting something she ate or drank last night." But that's a little obsolete. I've been feeling better the last half-hour or so, and actually ate something for the first time today.

So I guess it's time to change my status. Now it's: "Caprice Bellefleur is catching up on the internets."

Support trans rights AND Obama

We have now passed our second goal of 75 donors to the Obama campaign through the trans page on ActBlue, and we're really uping the ante: Now we're aiming for 150.

I posted our original solicitation here. Even if you can only donate $5 or $10, please give. The number of supporters donating through this page is important to show the Obama campaign, and all politicians, that the transgender community is involved in politics and can't be ignored.

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

Thanks.

The alphabet meme: R

is for regrets: I think there are two kinds of regrets. One is regrets in hindsight--what you'd do differently if you knew how things would turn out. I'm sure most people have lots of them. I do. I think they're usually the less interesting ones, though.

More interesting are regrets about decisions you made that were wrong, and that you knew at the time were wrong, at least somewhat. I have two of them. I regret staying at my first computer programming job too long. I should have left after a couple of years, because we weren't keeping up with advances in the industry. I sort of knew this, but it was a nice place to work (a university facility)--the people were all nice, the work wasn't too demanding, we had flexible hours and no dress code (something of a rarity in the early 80's). The programmers were left alone to do our work. The pay wasn't too bad, at least after the first couple years. I was satisfied, though I knew I could do better.

Then, after I was there for about 4.5 years, there was a reorganization, and a change of management. Things were very different. We, the programmers, were no longer given carte blanche. The new management did not like our independence, though a certain amount was tolerated because they knew they couldn't do without us--they hated the flexible hours, because they couldn't keep an eye on everyone all the time. We were misled about management's intentions, even outright lied to--I was told I would be getting a raise as of a certain date, when it hadn't been approved. And my boss knew it wouldn't be approved at least a month before its supposed start date, but he didn't tell me.

I wanted to get out, but there was a big problem--I didn't have the skills that were then in demand. I managed to find something after nearly a year of looking. (I learned a lot about headhunters in the process--especially ones who would send you out on interviews for jobs you really weren't qualified for--a real waste of time.) It was working for a marketing consultant, who had a contract with a big mail order company. The guy knew nothing about programming, but wanted to make all the decisions. He didn't really lie to me about what my job would entail, but he certainly lied to the headhunter, saying it was new position, when in fact he had fired my predecessor--and then refused to give him his last paycheck. He hired two of us at the same time. I couldn't figure it out, because there really wasn't enough work for two people. He soon fired the other one, and I realized he never had any intention of keeping both of us. (He then boasted about making sure that he did this after only 29 days, because that way he wouldn't have to pay the headhunter his commission!)

He was abusive to the two other employees (one especially), though at first he let me alone. Then, a couple weeks after he fired the other guy, I made a mistake, and he let me have it. So I walked out. Literally. My old place had said I could come back, and as bad as it was, it was better than the new one. But I learned a valuable lesson: Never work for an entrepreneur--they think they know everything about their business better than anyone, even experts in the field, and they view every dime of expenses as taking food off their plates.

It took me two more years to find another new job. For the rest of my career I was well behind the curve technology-wise--though right at the end this turned out to be an advantage. By the late 90's they had stopped teaching the old technologies in computer schools, but there were still some places that used it--and we old dinosaurs found we were a bit in demand, especially during the run up to Y2K.

Oh, yes, this was about regrets. My second regret was semi-wasting my first dozen years in New York, because I was too shy and scared to take advantage of many of its attractions--rock clubs, etc. I sat at home for a lot of my mid-20's to mid-30's.

Plat du jour

Of what?

The alphabet meme: Q

is for what you do in quiet times: Quiet times. What's that?

Life is different when you're retired. In some respects most of my life is quiet. Someone asked me recently if I make it a point to get out of the apartment every day. No, I don't. There are plenty of days when my longest excursion is to take the garbage out to the compactor chute down the hall. Sometimes this happens two or even three days in a row. It doesn't bother me a bit. I have a comfortable apartment, my wife and I each have an office (and we each have a bathroom), so we get enough "space."

I spend a lot of time at the computer. I'm a semi-retired moderator on the myHusbandBetty message boards, and I at least skim everything that's posted there. I read my e-mail, and some news websites, some blogs. I play pinball on the computer a little--the one that came with XP. I watch surprisingly little television, and read relatively few books. It's a nice, quiet life.

My record is super-smashed

As during the French Open, my glob received record numbers of visitors during Wimbledon, mostly people wanting to know about Mary Carillo. The first week ranged from the upper 30's to mid 50's hits per day, reaching a high of 67, nearly equaling the record 70. The second week returned to a pretty constant low 50's rate until Thursday's women's semis, when it hit 68. Then, on the 4th, when it was the men's turn, I smashed the record with 86.

I was pretty sure that it would be even higher on Saturday, when the women's final was played. I didn't check it until mid-afternoon, when I figured it might even be in triple figures. But I was shocked when I saw the count was 223! It kept going up, though at a slower rate, throughout the rest of the day, and at midnight the final total was 278--more than three times the record set the previous day. Amazing!

I had no idea what would happen on Sunday. I suspected it would be lower, because a lot of the people interested in Carillo had already done their searches. And it turned out I was right. It was only (ha-ha) 148.

This week it has gone back down, though it's still above normal--people are continuing to search for "Mary Carillo lesbian" and "Mary Carillo gay," hitting my old post.

I wonder what's going to happen during the U.S. Open.

The alphabet meme: P

is for people you were with today: I'm a day late on this one, but I think I have a good excuse. If I had done it yesterday before I went out, then the only person would be my wife. But I didn't get home until after midnight, and I was too tired to do it then anyway.

So now I have some time to really do it. Except it's really for yesterday, not today:

• My wife, as I said.


• Alma Gomez, another volunteer lawyer at the West Village TransLegal Clinic Name Change Project.


• 5 clients at the Name Change Project.


• My friend Cleopatra Queen of Denile and her roommate, at a performance by the Maestrocities.


• Jenny Lee Mitchell (Deirdre of the Maestrocities), and her friends from Europe that I went out with last Thursday.


• Andy Sapora (Chauncy of the Maestrocities).
  

Semi-random thoughts

● Since George Bush the (much) Lesser entered office, the largest United States export to Iran has been cigarettes--at least $158 million dollars worth. I guess someone thought the best way to oppose the Iranian regime was to kill them off with lung cancer.

UPDATE: I understand (from a MoveOn e-mail) that McCain has been making a similar joke. Well, I think I was first, so maybe he got it from me. Probably not. Anyhow, there's a big difference between a private person like me putting it in her blog, and a candidate for the president of the United States saying it. It's another example of how questionable McCain's judgment is.

● I must admit I was wrong about what happens when the Williams sisters play each other. They have managed to put aside their sisterly love and play well against each other--though Venus was a little better than Serena at it. (It also turns out they played a very competitive match in a minor tournament in March also, that I didn't know about.)

● Again this year a couple of pigeons have built a nest on the windowsill under the air conditioner of our TV room. Grrr. As much as I dislike looking at all the the pigeon-poop dripping down the wall underneath (quite visbile from the livingroom), I really don't want to destroy the nest now that they've set it up. I assume there are eggs underneath the bird sitting there.

My week in review

Sunday: We watched another episode of Inspector Lewis.

Thursday: Cleopatra Queen of Denile and I went down to the Here Theater in SoHo to see Arias with a Twist. That's Joey Arias, the drag performer and Basil Twist the puppeteer, who have joined forces to create a bizarre, wonderful, song-filled show. It's been extended until August 31.

Joining us was Jenny Lee Mitchell (Deirdre of the Maestrocities). She has known Joey Arias since she was a teenager, when they worked together at Fiorucci's. We got to talk to Arias briefly after the show. Then Cleopatra, Jenny and I, along with a couple of Jenny's friends who were also at the show, went out to dinner at a nice Spring St. Italian restaurant.

Saturday: My wife and I saw "Tell No One (Ne le dis à personne)."(UK website) It was simply one of the best thrillers I've ever seen. It ranks up there with "The Third Man." It's the classic innocent man being framed, on the run from the police and a sinister gang of bad guys--including a woman so evil that she makes Cate Blanchett in Indiana Jones look like a cuddly pussy cat.

Afterwards we had an adequate dinner at Serafina.

The alphabet meme: O

is for overnight hospital stays: Zero. I guess that's not quite true--I'm sure I was in the hospital a few days when I was born. Back then they didn't rush people out of the hospital as fast as possible, the way they do today. And I was quite small--a couple ounces lighter and they'd have put me in an incubator.

But I've been very lucky health-wise. Another zero: number of stitches I've had in my body.

The alphabet meme: N

is for number of piercings you have: Zero. I'd love to get my ears pierced, but it would totally freak-out my wife.

Plat du jour

I really don't think I want him operating on me.

The alphabet meme: M

is for your favorite muppet: I'm so old, I did not grow up with Sesame Street--I was already in college when it debuted. I remember, if only vaguely, seeing Rowlf the Dog on the Jimmy Dean show when I was in high school. I never watched The Muppet Show very much.

So the amount of my contact with the Muppets is way, way under average. But from the little I've seen, I think I like Kermit the best. I'll always remember his little shudder when someone mentioned eating frogs' legs.

Williams v Williams in the Wimbledon final--UGH!

I've said it before, when Venus and Serena Williams play each other it's a lousy match. As with sibling against sibling in general, they don't play their best--it's hard to go all out against someone you love.

The alphabet meme: L

is for last restaurant you dined at:
(Shouldn't this be "R"?)
Trattoria Spaghetto in Greenwich Village. This was the suggestion of my friend, Cleopatra Queen of Denile, when we went out last Thursday. The food is decent, and reasonably priced. The service is fair, at least if you sit inside.

TG for Obama

In just 2 days we have already surpassed our initial goal of 50 Obama contributors on the transpeople and allies page. Now we're aiming for 75. Even if you can only donate $5 or $10, please give. The number of supporters donating through this page is important to show the Obama campaign, and all politicians, that the transgender community is involved in politics and can't be ignored.

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

Thanks.

The alphabet meme: K

is for what you'd like to kick: "Kick" has two very different meanings--the original, "to strike with one's foot," and the more modern, "to give up," especially a bad habit or addiction. Since I don't have any habits or addictions that I'd like to give up, I guess I'll have go with the first definition. Except I can't think of anything I'd like to strike with my foot. So I'm going cheat a little and use a verb phrase.

I'd like to kick the Republicans out of power.

Plat du jour

The alphabet meme: J

is for favorite juice: None. Not worth the calories.

Living with bears XL

New Jersey: Bear Tranquilized After Causing Disruption Near Paramus High School

Canada: Birdseed-loving black bear goes pine high for a feast, Fur flies over Whistler bear birth control

Pennsylvania: Home cooking lures bear to trap in Fayette, Woman recovering from bear attack

Michigan: Bear captured in Fruitport Twp.

New York: Bad news: bear had a record

Romania: Bear and her cub climb stairs of block of flats in search for food

Wyoming: Officials trap bear on Casper Mountain

India: Five schoolgirls mauled by bear

North Carolina: Official says shooting of bear was justifiable

Support Obama AND transgender rights

Dear Fellow Transgender Advocate,

This year we have an opportunity to elect a President who will be the most transgender-supportive in history.

But electing a candidate isn't enough just by itself. Unless we're visibly and vocally involved with campaigns and giving our time, energy, money, and ideas we will miss out on an opportunity to create a relationship with a President who has already said he's willing to stand with us. That is why we are asking you to join with us in supporting Barack Obama.

We've set up a specific page to track donations from the transgender community and our allies to Sen. Obama's campaign. You can donate by clicking here:

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

In both the United States and Illinois Senate, Barack Obama has a long commitment to supporting the LGBT community—and specifically the transgender community. Most recently, here is what he said when issuing his statement on Pride month:

"It's time to live up to our founding promise of equality by treating all our citizens with dignity and respect. Let's enact federal civil rights legislation to outlaw hate crimes and protect workers against discrimination based upon sexual orientation and gender identity or expression. . .

"We are ready to accomplish these goals because of the courage and persistence of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people who have been working every day to achieve equal rights. The gay couple who demand equal treatment in our family laws as they raise their children; the lesbian soldier who wants nothing more than to serve her country openly and honestly; the transgender workers who ask for the simple dignity of being judged by the quality of their work. Generations of LGBT Americans, at once ordinary and extraordinary, have made possible this moment in our history. With leadership and hard work, we can fulfill the promise of equality for all."

--Sen. Barack Obama
June 6, 2008

Fully inclusive hate crime protections, fully inclusive employment non-discrimination, and a fully inclusive vision of the American family; these are the values we can have in our next President.

But he can't win—and our community won't advance—without your support.

We're encouraging you to give today to Barack Obama for President at a special fundraising page that will track the impact of the transgender community and our allies on the election.

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

This page, launched in conjunction with Stonewall Democrats, will track donations to the Obama campaign from the transgender community and our allies. The money raised on the page will go directly to Sen. Obama's campaign.

We've set a very modest starting goal of 50 donors. Can you be one of those 50? [Update: we've gotten 50, and are going for 75.] Can you promote this page on your blog? Can you help spread the word and email your friends and family?

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


This election is too important to sit on the sidelines. Let's elect a pro-equality Democrat and help build power for our community.

Sincerely,

Marti Abernathy
Karen Bachman
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The alphabet meme: I

is for instruments played: None. I have no musical talent whatsoever. I tried the drum when I was in elementary school, and had a few piano lessons when I was in high school, but basically I'm hopeless.

Plat du jour--guest submission

A friend found this one.

The alphabet meme: H

is for hometown: Cleveland Heights, Ohio. I escaped over 40 years ago. It was a pretty good place to grow up in, at least back then. But I wanted to get away from being treated like a child, which my parents pretty much did, at least until my senior year of high school. And Cleveland was a rather dull city in the 60's.

My brother now owns the house we grew up in. He bought it from my mother's estate. My mother inherited it from her father, who bought it in 1945.

My week in review

Sunday: My wife and I watched the first episode of Inspector Lewis from Masterpiece Mystery! Detective Sergeant Lewis from Inspector Morse gets a promotion and his own series in this spin-off. Pretty good, though as a character Lewis is not nearly as deep as Morse was, at least so far.

Tuesday: I started at Mayor Bloomberg's Pride Celebration at Gracie Mansion, the NYC mayor's official residence. (Bloomberg doesn't actually live in the mansion though. He prefers his own townhouse--it's nice being a multi-billionaire.) I got there late, and by the time I got through security (when I set off the metal detector I just said I was wearing a corset, and they allowed me in), Bloomberg had already finished his speech. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn was making her remarks. Then the mayor introduced a short talk by designer Isaac Mizrahi, who said a psychic had told him the love of his life was named Eric--so he would go into gay bars and call out "Eric!" to see who turned around. Finally they played a little "Match Game" take-off with three members of the audience. It was pretty stupid.

After the program I just mingled and had a couple small cups of wine and lots of the salads provided, avoiding the make-up destroying hamburgers, hotdogs and chicken. (A fork is a crossdresser's best friend at mealtime.) There were probably 15 or 20 people there I knew and said hello to.

After that I went downtown (via bus and subway) to another Yetta Kurland for City Council fundraiser. I got some good aerobic exercise climbing the stairs to Tom Shevlin's fifth floor apartment. But it was lots of fun--each one of these Kurland fundraisers is more fun than the previous. This campaign is attracting a lot of interesting people.

Thursday: My friend Cleopatra Queen of Denile and I started with an off-off-Broadway musical, written and performed by the daughter of Mariette Pathy Allen, who has photographed two books of transgender people. Julia Steele Allen's "A Boy Called Noise" is about the murder of a gay teenager. This was originally(?) produced in the 2006 San Fransisco Fringe Festival. Allen is a very good actress, but I found her writing to be a bit lacking.

We the went down to the Village for some dinner, and Sweetie's show at the Stonewall. However, the show was cancelled (the Stonewall manager told us Sweetie's father had died). So we went up to the Zipper Theater for "Don't Quit Your Night Job." It was the second anniversary of the Broadway-oriented comedy/improvisational show, though it was my first time. (It starts at 11:30, so the Broadway performers can be there.) It was a lot of fun. They get some big name Broadway performers as guests: I got to see Kelli O'Hara from South Pacific and Mary Poppins herself: Ashley Brown. They used O'Hara (whom I had heard in "Light in the Piazza") in the spot where a great voiced Broadway star sings some very mundane lyrics--O'Hara lent her beautiful soprano to subway announcements, prescription medicine instructions, and a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. Later it was Brown's turn. However, prior to her entrance the show host fielded audience suggestions to questions like: "Give me a verb," "Give me a liquid," "Give me a familiar place." These were inserted into Brown's lyric. So we got to hear her sing "A spoonful of semen helps the medicine go down," etc. I'm looking forward to seeing this show again, when it resumes in the fall.

Saturday: My wife and I watched the Metropolitan Opera production of Donizetti's "La Fille du Régiment" which we had DVR'd. It was a wonderful performance. Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Flórez were marveleous--Flórez makes such a handsome leading man, aside from being an extraordinary singer (what high C's!). Dessay can also sing beautifully--while simultaneously being a great comic actress. The only slightly detracting aspect was the slightly muddled production. It seemed to be set in the 1930's, judging by the costumes and (altered) dialogue. But I can't say I remember France invading Switzerland in that time period.

The alphabet meme: G

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

Plat du jour

= 1.

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

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