The Little Words Mean the Most

Assaulted by Giving Tuesday 2021

 

The police report

 

[click on the words above; they're a link to the article]

 

Explored Wilton Manors yesterday

 

 

ABOVE: our dear friend Joel, a Wilton Manors resident, costumed for "the Island City's" 2021 Halloween parade

Joel is a looooongtime intimate. He did Simone's hair — then mine — for decades. His was a salon in the old sense: a place where certain people came to share personalities, gossip, ideas. And left feeling beautiful.

I went for the haircuts initially. I stayed over the years for the authenticity, the warmth, the philosophy. In his 2-chair shop, Joel (and his delightful biz partner, Mario) created a tolerance zone. (They even tolerated me!) Joel is special: a survivor, a person of steadfast faith who cares hard, a distinguished observer of the human condition.

In 2004, Rhode Island Monthly, the state's fancy-pants lifestyle magazine, published an article I'd researched and written titled "Welcome to the Neighborhood." The lead? "A new study of the local gay community finds wealth, high volunteerism and a bent for churchgoing. And while life isn't always a walk on the beach, it turns out Rhode Island is a pretty good place to be if you're gay."

Joel and his partner, Allan, were two of my key informants.

Still, times in 2004 being still a bit "behind the," we did the precautionary thing and changed their names and some other identifiers in that article. Now, we wouldn't bother.

In the last half-decade, Joel and Allan fully retired south from Rhode Island to paradise: Wilton Manors, FL.

Based on the 2010 Census, Wilton Manors proudly bills itself as America's "2nd gayest city." (And, of course, now you'll want to know, just in case you're on Jeopardy and the question comes up: "What's the 1st gayest city in America?" I don't know. Joel didn't know, either.)

What he told me was that 60% of Wilton Manors, FL residents identify as gay. And, therefore, conspicuously fabulous? The photo below is of a prize-winning costume at the city's 2021 Halloween Parade, which attracts a crowd. That Georgian wig is made of toilet-paper rolls.

Joel volunteers at Ronnie Larson Presents, a small, outrageous, thought-provoking, thought-providing nonprofit theatre in Wilton Manors. Ronnie Larson Presents devotes its stage to LGBT entertainment, as does its next-door theatre, POW! (Plays of Wilton!)

 

Seeking extra credit?

Read below the opening paragraphs of the article Joel inspired [and please read below with your very best "woke" tolerance: what was written in 2004 is NOT what 2021 would write]:

 

Are you a lesbian? Take this simple test.

Hold up one hand.

Look at your ring finger and your index finger.

If you're a straight woman, both fingers will probably be the same length.

If you're a lesbian, your ring finger will likely be longer, as it typically would be for a man.

So the BBC reported in March 2000, following up some UC Berkeley research on how male hormones in the womb determine gender orientation. The reaction was swift and merciless.

The "your behavior is an abomination to god" crowd saw this as a further effort to push the biological view of homosexuality, a view that says love between two members of the same sex happens thanks to chemicals or genes or both. Inevitable, in other words. Unavoidable. It can be a comforting view: "That's jes the way god made me, so deal with it, you ignorant bigot."

Groups like the Family Research Council, "Defending Family, Faith, and Freedom," aren't having any. They say, "Using 'biology' as a stamp of legitimacy, homosexual activists have pushed for special rights, from sex-partner subsidies to 'gay marriage' to adoption. There is no scientific evidence to support such claims, and it is wrong and dangerously misleading to say that people are born homosexual and cannot change."

Scientists remain determined. They believe they have isolated the Gay Gene in some species (oh, yes, other animals have same-sex relationships). Not yet in humans, though. For now, the "nature vs. nurture" debate still has plenty of gas in the tank.

The notion of a Gay Gene is not universally loved among the gay community, you might be surprised to learn. There are some who wonder, if tests exist for a Gay Gene, might parents who abhor homosexuality choose to terminate the pregnancy, maybe on the excuse that it would be "better for the child's sake"?

Paranoid? Sure. But it wouldn't be the first time in history that gays were in some way singled out for extinction. Sixty years ago the Nazis wanted homosexuals out of the gene pool and shipped them to the death camps.

 

Storm Henri, you bastard child of our suffering planet, look at the outages you've caused

Connecticut Rhode Island

 

the Fuck You Manifesto

 

fill in your own blanks

 

you deserve it

lazy poem based on July 15 CNN headlines

 

don't care;

kinda celebrity care;

don't care except prurient;

muted response b/c true grieving maybe happened;

hope, just a bit

 

Fauci holds his ground against Navarro broadside: experts vs. contaminated dopes

Twitter accounts of Joe Biden, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Apple and others apparently hacked

American woman caught in a romance scam freed after being held by lover for more than a year

A 33-year-old tech CEO was found dismembered in a New York apartment, law enforcement source says

Biden opens up a 15-point lead over Trump in new national poll

 

In 2027, this book will appear

 

Non-fiction,

 

pub. 2027,

 

pop. history by a distinguished univ. prof.,

 

titled: ALL PRESIDENTS CONSIDERED

 

"By the end, #45 was known as the Grim Reaper. He botched decision after decision. His famous 'gut' hated experts. His staff acted in sycophantic unison. Vast death found a cozy hearth."

 

thank you 2020 voters; you threw out the trash instead of recycling

 

 

 

From our bestie, Doris Donovan....

 

Captain Trump, from the Titanic

 

 

There isn't any iceberg.

There was an iceberg but it's in a totally different ocean.

The iceberg is in this ocean but it will melt very soon.

There is an iceberg but we didn't hit the iceberg.

We hit the iceberg, but the damage will be repaired very shortly.

The iceberg is a Chinese iceberg.

We are taking on water but every passenger who wants a lifeboat can get a lifeboat, and they are beautiful lifeboats. Look, passengers need to ask nicely for the lifeboats if they want them.

We don't have any lifeboats, we're not lifeboat distributors.

Passengers should have planned for icebergs and brought their own lifeboats.

I really don't think we need that many lifeboats.

We have lifeboats and they're supposed to be our lifeboats, not the passengers' lifeboats.

The lifeboats were left on shore by the last captain of this ship.

Nobody could have foreseen the iceberg.

 

 

Is it still a crime to satirize #45? I'm hiding

 

our pest saviors arrive 4 times a year

quarterly I pay their bill with murmured prayers

they've kept my cold coffee generally clear of stink bugs

the Dalai Lama said on air

Dear Michigan environmental advocacy groups...

 

 

 

Why Rhode Island's (my) state legislature needs a reboot-in-the-pants on women's rights

 

Two headlines in our daily paper, days apart, tell the tale of what REALLY matters to our testosterone-misdirected elected officials.

Women are told to go home, empty-handed.

The boys get to play with their baseballs ... while guaranteeing taxpayer investment in a professional sport that has fallen in popularity steadily since 1972.

Today, pro football is FOUR TIMES more popular than pro baseball. In the latest Gallup polling, baseball ranked its lowest since 1937, just a teensy bit more popular than soccer to US audiences. That's against a backdrop of falling attendance generally at all kinds of sporting events.

And Rhode Island is buying in!