Born On This Day- February 22nd... Barbara Jordan

It is Black History month. Black lesbians made history too!  Today marks the 76th birthday of Barbara Jordan.  Representative Barbara Jordan was the first women from Texas to serve in Congress, the first African-American woman elected to Congress from a southern state. She was known as an outstanding orator & Constitutional scholar. If she had lived she may have served in the current administration or on the Supreme Court, as Bill Clinton intended. She received The Presidential Medal Of Freedom in 1994.

In 1976, Jordan, mentioned as a possible running mate to Jimmy Carter, became the first African-American woman to deliver the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention. Her speech in NYC that summer is ranked 5th in Top 100 American Speeches of the 20th Century list by the Association of University Professors.

Jordan was a lesbian with a longtime companion of more than 25 years, Nancy Earl; Jordan never publicly acknowledged her sexual orientation, but in her obituary, the Houston Chronicle mentioned her longtime relationship with Earl. After Jordan’s initial unsuccessful statewide races, advisers warned her to become more discreet.

At Jordan’s funeral in 1996, President Clinton: “Whenever she stood to speak, she jolted the nation’s attention with her artful & articulate defense of the Constitution, the American Dream, & the common heritage & destiny we share, whether we like it or not. ”

Her legacy continues on through the Jordan/Rustin Coalition. The mission of the Coalition is to empower Black lesbian, gay, bisexual & transgender individuals & families in Greater LA, to promote equal marriage rights & to advocate for fair treatment of everyone without regard to race, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.

Jordan was diagnosed with MS in 1973, Leukemia is the 1980s & died of complications from Pneumonia in 1996.

“A spirit of harmony can only survive if each of us remembers, when bitterness & self-interest seem to prevail, that we share a common destiny.”

The L Word

She is my second favorite Baldwin. Will Tammy Baldwin become the country’s first openly gay senator?

I am relieved that Baldwin is acknowledging that she is gay & then moving on to the issues. Even in Wisconsin, if the Republicans use anti-gay rhetoric, it would likely backfire on them. Everyone that I have met from the Badger State have been nothing if not nice, really nice.  Besides, Baldwin’s sexuality is old news. Who cares if she is a lesbian?  Not the Wisconsin news media. Not the academics who study politics. Not the professional Democrats. Not the professional Republicans. Not the local or national LGBT leaders.

With Wisconsin having just had a bruising battle over union rights to collectively bargain in the state, along with recall campaigns against state senators who supported their repeal, the political culture in this swing state, with only 5 five million voters, is even more divided than usual. That creates a perfect opening for a candidate like Baldwin, who is firmly on one side of the political divide.

Baldwin voted against going to war in Iraq, & is pushing to end the war in Afghanistan. She was also one of the few members of Congress to vote against repealing the Glass-Stegall Act, which would have prevented Wall Street & the banks from making the kinds of risky investments that led to our country’s near financial collapse. Baldwin believes in all people having access to quality, affordable health care.

In 1999, Baldwin became the first woman elected to Congress from Wisconsin & the first openly gay challenger elected to Congress.

To help reduce our dependence on foreign energy & create jobs throughout her state, Baldwin has pushed for investment in clean energy technology & renewable fuels. She has also been a vocal supporter of protecting & restoring Wisconsin’s environment so future generations can enjoy its natural beauty.

Tammy has been a national leader on civil rights and equality issues, including LGBT equality. She is continually fighting to see that all Wisconsinites receive equal rights and protections under the law. When she wins, Baldwin would not be the first openly LGBT candidate to win a statewide office, though none have won top political jobs & none have won statewide seats in the Midwest.

6 people have won state posts that required victory outside of gay friendly cities or liberal districts. Here in Oregon, we now have 3 openly gay officials: Kate Brown as current secretary of state, & Virginia Linder & Rives Kistler now on the Oregon Supreme Court. But the 2 biggest statewide prizes- governor & USA senator, have yet to be won by anyone openly gay. I know, I know, former New Jersey Governor- Jim McGreevey is gay, but he was a heterosexually married man when he ran for office, enjoying romance at Interstate highway rest stops. He resigned in 2004 when he was forced to admit he was having an affair with a man. If Baldwin succeeds, a new barrier to LGBT full political participation will have fallen.

Do not mess with this Baldwin. She was just 9 years old when her mother married a black man in 1971. Baldwin was forced to face the injustice of suspicious white adults stopping her stepfather to ask what he was doing with a blond, blue-eyed little girl. She was the first openly gay non-incumbent elected to Congress, & the first woman elected to Congress from Wisconsin. Despite anti-gay smear campaigns by her Republican opponents, she has won her last 4 elections by 2-to-1 margins.

Today is Tammy Suzanne Green Baldwin's 50th Birthday. You Go, Girl!

Born On This Day... Eleanor Roosevelt

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home... so close & so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood they live in; the school or college they attend; the factory, farm, or office where they work. Such are the places where every man, woman, & child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world."

Today’s Birthday Gay did not set out with a longing to become a hero or a person of power; she simply wanted to become a wife. In doing so, she afforded herself the chance to start a tide of change, with the ripples still being felt today.

When I am questioned about my political beliefs, I answer: "I am in favor of all the good things & I am against all the bad things."  Most often the questioner will shoot back: "what does that mean?". I smartly return with: "if you need me to clarify, I am concerned for you." If pressed, I explain: "I am an FDR style Democrat. I believe in a strong & active Federal Government & I believe in great public works: Infrastucture, Universities, Arts, & Science/Technology. There is work to be done!"

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was born on this day in 1884 to a high society New York family. The Roosevelts were poised to be a political dynasty, with her uncle Theodore, on a path to be President someday. The family descended from the Dutch aristocracy & young Eleanor spent her first years in luxury & with an air of high achievement.

She was not a pretty girl; she had buck teeth & a troubled grin. A solemn child with good manners, Eleanor stumbled & stammered her words.

Eleanor was an orphan at 10 years old & was shipped off to Britain where attended Finishing School in London. She blossomed there. In her studies, it was matters of human suffering & injustice that had her interest. Having always lived in the lap of luxury, the concept of not having enough to eat, facing prejudice every day or having no shelter came as a terrible shock.

Back in NY, a distant cousin, Franklin, was a part of her social circle. He was a rising political star and he dreamt one day of following in the footsteps of his relative, Theodore, & becoming President. They close friends with a special understanding of where their relationship was heading. They married started a family. During the first 11 years of their marriage, they had 6 children, a girl & 5 boys. Roosevelt was involved in the League of Women Voters & the Women’s Trade Union while her husband was serving in the state Senate of NY.

In their 13th year as a couple, Roosevelt discovered, from letters her husband left lying around, that he was having a love affair with another woman. She experienced an overwhelming sense of loneliness. A devoted wife for so many years, her life had been built around her husband, with little attention paid to her own identity. The Roosevelts decided to patch up their relationship, but Eleanor had found that she needed to seek a life outside of her marriage & an individual sense of purpose.

Equality became her new life’s work: child labor, workers rights & the creation of a minimum wage. Her work made her more politically aware. This proved to be extremely advantageous when, at 39, her husband was struck down by polio & she traveled the country as his “eyes & ears”. She reported the country’s needs back to her husband so he could build his positions & election campaigns around them. He had the presidential persona, while she was the political brain behind the scenes.

The reward for them both came in 1933 when Franklin D. Roosevelt became President. He inherited a USA in its darkest hour. Not unlike our situation today, the Wall Street Crash in 1919 had spun into a depression 14 years later. The middle of the country had become a giant dustbowl & banks all over the country were shutting, unable to pay out to their customers, unemployment stood at record levels & many families were living way below the poverty level. Sound familiar? The task facing the President must have seemed overwhelming.

The Roosevelt marriage had become a purely professional partnership. While on the campaign trail, the new First Lady met with a top female reporter, Lorena Hickock. The pair fell passionately in love & Hickock decided to leave her promising writing career & take the job at the White House which was offered to her by a sympathetic & womanising President Roosevelt.

The new President & First Lady began a radical overhaul of the entire country. The First Lady’s style could clearly be seen in the New Deal, the name President Roosevelt gave to the sweeping changes made to the system of government in the USA. The banks were forced to open again & changes were made to the way they were run.

In a move that would make today’s Republicans heads explode, government agencies were set up to deal with every aspect of the depression, the acronyms were flying. There was an agency created to cover all social problems of the New Deal. The CCC: Civilian Conservation Corps gave jobs to the unemployed, the AAA: Agricultural Adjustment Administration, set to sorting out the devastated farming land, a little agency named the SSA-Social Security Administration was put in charge of welfare payments. Over 20 new agencies were set up within the first year of the President’s term of office.

All of the reforms of the New Deal had Eleanor Roosevelt’s political fingerprints all over them and she was undoubtedly a strong figure in the Presidency. During the recovery from the depression, she travelled the country ensuring that everything was going as planned. It was during this time that she began the radical step of sounding her objections to racism. In a segregated USA, Roosevelt took the bold step of insisting black workers be given the same rights as their whites. She refused to attend a conference when told that she could not sit in the ‘black section’ with a pair of her close friends. Her actions were unpopular. As radical factions were starting to take power in Europe, the American people became obsessed with hunting out communists. With her incredible social & humanitarian conscience, Roosevelt was branded a communist.

The FBI opened a file on Roosevelt. As the President’s wife & with the knowledge of her huge input into the running of the country, it was essential that they keep a close eye on her political leanings. In the 3,900 pages worth of letters, articles & public hearsay, her life was documented in the smallest detail. As her writing & public speeches became more prolific, the file grew.

But the most intimate documents relating to her love life are largely lost . Her beloved Hickock encouraged Roosevelt to write her a letter each evening. In these letters Roosevelt spoke in intimate detail of her affection for Hickock: ‘ I want lie down with you & hold you in my arms, I adore your soft caress & gentle kiss. The letters left no ambiguity as to the nature of their relationship. The honesty of the words was to prove their downfall. Soon after Hickock’s death, her family burned the letters after having read only a few lines. Although a few documents exist, the true story of their love affair went up in flames.

President Roosevelt died, while still in office, in 1945. he had been president since 1933. Eleanor approached the new President with offering her service. Truman saw her potential & the huge public sympathy for her, & gave her a position as a Delegate to the United States General Assembly. Later, she would also take the vital role as Chairperson of the UN Human Rights Commission, giving her the huge responsibility of overseeing the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Roosevelt died from TB, in 1968 at the age of 78. Although her death ended one of the greatest political careers in history, the fight for equal treatment of both ethnic minorities & women was finally in full flow, largely from her efforts.

Her sexuality was closely guarded by those around her, even after her death. Although gay rights was unheard of during most of her lifetime, Roosevelt knew her sexuality undoubtedly put her in the kind of minority group that America was oppressing at every opportunity, so it is hardly surprising that she championed causes no other white woman would dream of touching. Although she was the nation’s First Lady, her work as the President’s wife was a hard act for the wives of future leaders to follow.

Eleanor on the left, with Fela

I don’t believe it matters how you get to be who you are, even if you reach your position of authority by marrying the right person. Eleanor Roosevelt's positions required bravery, brilliance & benevolence. She made a difference. “Do what you feel is right in your heart to be right for you will be criticized anyway. You are damned if you do, you are damned if you don’t.”

Straight, But Not Narrow... Gavin Newsom

Gavin Newsom is the former mayor of San Francisco & current Lieutenant Governor of the great state of California. He’s is unashamedly in favor of full equality for gay people & he has always been a strong voice for us. There are very few politicians as open as this handsome man. I am pinning my hopes on Newsom being president some day. He turns 44 years old today.

"Not every Democrat in Washington agrees with gay marriage. But I will make the case, based on some strong evidence that an overwhelming majority do. But they just can’t say it. & that is a limitation that is causing more damage than the issue. Because, again, it shows a weakness of character.

This is really one of the great final civil rights struggles, & again I say to my colleagues in the Democratic party: Why are you a Democrat if you can’t stand on a fundamental construct that has always distinguished our party. That we didn’t sit around. We advanced the issues of equality. We engaged the American people head on.”

Newsom describes our one night together

Men I Love- Anthony Weiner... I Will Have The Weiner, Lots Of Relish & Hold The Bun!

Why do I follow NY politics? Well, NYC is my favorite place on the planet. I love New Yorkers, I love Jews, & I love a guy that tells it like it is, with a great big pinch of piping hot devastating, dead on humor.

Brooklyn born, Anthony Weiner has been the the US Representative for Southern Brooklyn & a big swatch of Queens, since 1998. He has won every election since that time, never receiving less than 59% of the vote. Weiner graduated from SUNY-Plattsburg, where his roommate was Jon Stewart. At 27 years old, he was the youngest person elected to the NYC Council. His marriage to Huma M. Abedin, an aide to Hillary Clinton, was officiated by Bill Clinton. He is buddies with Ben Affleck. Can he really be any cooler? Mayor of NYC... please! POTUS in 2016? Did I mention that I love him?

With The Bride Of Weiner

"Nancy Pelosi was my House Leader & we worked well together. We agree on most issues... we both believe in Mandatory Gay Marriage."

Perfectly Frank

"I'm gay, I'm left-handed, I'm Jewish. There's a lot of things that I'm supposed to do that I don't do."


I love him for his ire & for his wit. I think he is a true American Hero. For the 1st time in 40+ years, Barney Frank yields real power now & he is wielding it in a characteristically idiosyncratic manner. He remains a national symbol of outré sexuality as well as a rare wit in humor lacking in politics in DC.


Barney Frank on being harassed by Tea Party members: ''More than one. My partner, Jim, & I were walking from… it was a nice day! We walked from one House office building to another. There was a great deal of shouting, you know, waving of fists & signs, & sort of people getting very close & yelling. & a number of the comments were homophobic... really, sadness. As Jim said, we're adults… I haven't really got a lot of respect for these people, to be honest. So, who cares what they say to me? But you do have to think about it. I'm serious about this, this bullying in junior & high school. It's a big problem. What occurs to me is, there are kids all over the country watching this, not as a game but as real life. Watching so-called respectable politicians cheering them on, & that was just discouraging, that at this point in our history, we couldn't have a rational debate with these kind of thug tactics that were being used.''


On coming out to himself, Frank says he realized he was gay when he was 13 years old: "I was aware when I was 11 and 12 that my sexual feelings were different than the other guys'. But I thought I was just a little slow to get those feelings. & then it just hit me like a thunderbolt one day. It was terrifying & emotionally very devastating."


Frank attended Harvard, & graduated in 1962. He taught undergraduates while pursuing a Ph.D. He left in 1968 before completing the degree in order to work as Boston Mayor Kevin White's chief assistant. In 1972, Frank won a seat in the State Legislature. The following year, he introduced the state's first 2 gay rights bills.


In 1980, Pope John Paul II ordered all Roman Catholic priests to withdraw from electoral politics. Father Robert Drinan, who represented the Fourth Congressional District in Massachusetts, complied. More than a dozen local politicians vied for the seat. Frank narrowly won the election. His slogan was "Neatness Isn't Everything," a reference to his rumpled wardrobe.


In 1987, Frank became the first congressman to voluntarily announce his homosexuality publicly.

In 1989, Frank found himself in a major scandal. 4 years earlier, Frank had engaged the services of a male escort named Stephen Gobie. Frank later hired Gobie as a driver despite knowing that he was on probation. Frank also used his House privileges to waive Gobie's parking tickets. When Frank discovered that Gobie was running a prostitution service out of his Capitol Hill apartment, he fired him. Gobie responded by telling his story to the news media. Attempts to expel or censure Frank, led by members of the House Ethics Committee who included the charming Representative Larry Craig, failed. Frank initially decided not to seek reelection in 1990; however, he changed his mind & would win with 66 % of the vote. He won reelection in 2008 with 70% of the vote.


Frank resides in a studio apartment in Newton, Massachusetts & small apartment in DC. His boyfriend, Jim Ready, is a pot smoking surfer who lives in Maine. Last year, Ready nearly got Frank, in a bit of trouble when he got arrested for growing marijuana while Frank was in the house with him. He told off to a couple of Right Wing Christian ladies who were heckling Frank on a plane flight. My kind of boyfriend.

Barney Frank celebrates his 71st birthday today. Happy Birthday & thanks for fighting the good fight.

My Second Favorite Baldwin

Tammy Baldwin: "Focus on jobs, not restricting women's rights!"


The Republicans are playing a dangerous game with the American people. Despite all their talk about jobs & deficit spending, they’re pushing for extreme new laws that would give government & insurance companies power over our most personal life decisions & health care decisions.


House Republicans have decided that their biggest priority this week is to pass legislation that would cut off millions of women from the private health care they have today & limit the ability of a woman to get the care she need, even if the result could be a serious permanent health condition or could shorten her life.


These bills, H.R. 3, the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,” & H.R. 358, the “Protect Life Act” would allow public hospitals to refuse to take the steps necessary to save a woman’s life & allow states to deny Medicaid coverage for care to prevent life-long disabilities. This intrusive legislation would also allow public hospitals to refuse to take the steps necessary to save a woman's life & allow states to deny Medicaid coverage to prevent life long disabilities. It would give insurance companies more power over what women can & cannot do with their own health care dollars.


But, Representative Tammy Baldwin is calling the Republicans out. Baldwin: "Despite promises from the new majority that this Congress would focus on creating jobs & bolstering the economy, this bill that we are considering today fails to deliver this promise. In fact, this bill could further exacerbate the problem by causing millions of vulnerable Americans & small businesses to face a tax increases. If there's one message I've heard loud & clear from my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, it's that tax hikes result in jobs lost."


Don’t messy with this Baldwin. She was just 9 years old when her mother married a black man in 1971. Baldwin was forced to face the injustice of suspicious white adults stopping her stepfather to ask what he was doing with a blond, blue-eyed little girl. She was the first openly gay non-incumbent elected to Congress, & the first woman elected to Congress from Wisconsin. Despite anti-gay smear campaigns by her Republican opponents, she has won her last 4 elections by 2-to-1 margins. Baldwin voted against the Iraq invasion in 2003, & she co-sponsored a resolution to impeach Cheney & Gonzales.

Today is Tammy Suzanne Green Baldwin's 49th Birthday. You Go, Girl!

Sheila James Kuehl Turns 69 Today...

I will always remember who I thought to be one of only intelligent female characters on early TV viewing. She was a character from one my earliest favorite TV series from the late 1950s. This show was The Many Loves Of Dobie Gillis, & what a cast: Dwayne Hickman, Tuesday Weld, Frank Faylen, Florida Friebus, Bob Denver (who I worked with in the early 1970s, in a little thing called The Star Spangled Girl), Warren Beatty & Shelia James Kuehl as Zelda Gilroy.

Kuehl was slated for her own spinoff, Zelda, & episodes were filmed, but the project was dropped when rumors began to circulate that she was a lesbian. When she was passed over for a promotion in favor of a man with less experience she began to see major obstacles for women in the job market. She went back to school, received a law degree from the Harvard Law School & became an advocate for equal rights as an attorney specializing in Feminist causes before being elected to the California State Assembly in 1994. Kuehl was the first woman in California history to be named Speaker pro Tempore of the Assembly. She is also the first openly gay person to be elected to the California Legislature.

Kuehl's story could only happen in Hollywood. She was from a working class family & was only a teenager when she broke TV with her big break with the role of Zelda Gilroy in that widely popular series about American teenagers.

Along with Miss Jane Hathaway from The Beverly Hillbillies, Zelda was a favorite of mine when I was an 8 year old viewer, because even then, I liked my girls to be more like boys. I am proud to know that Kuehl would become better known for her legislation that protects students from anti-gay harassment and discrimination in California's schools.

Let's call censorship "a nice throw blanket" instead.

So we have all heard by now that the book, Huckleberry Finn has been stripped of its truth by a publishing company who is playing God with our history as of late. The very people whose role it is to protect words and ensure that they are distributed by demand are now taking up their own agenda and removing the offensive words from the pages of a book written by an author long since dead. They do this to protect who? Me? I don't remember asking for this. Apparently this will make it more friendly to people in the 21st century. Wha-wha...huh?

People have been fighting to keep censors from our history for ages and now they're losing? What??? Just like that? What right does a publisher have to decide if I am too fragile to read certain phrases. Even if they are disgusting and provoke horror, terrible connotations and worst of all: offense. They have their work cut out if this is their new itinerary

Most of us find the word removed from Huck Finn to be a completely repugnant and cringe-worthy one. The n-word (among others) is a terrible word. It's vile. However, these terrible words are critically important words. They are words that we have only just begun to move away from in our culture. They are words that society in general has just started to understand and be ashamed of- but we must remember why we are moving away from them. We must remember why we are ashamed of them. We have got to feel the shame when we read them, particularly in the context presented in Huck Finn. We have to talk about them.

We must remember them the same way we have to remember the horrors committed by human beings in our wars and struggles. What else will we pretend did not happen if we allow ourselves this? These are not nice memories, but there they are. These are the ghosts of things that humans have done and said to one another. Should we forget, we are in peril of allowing history to repeat, which might sound affected, but avalanches begin with pebbles. We owe it to humanity to preserve even our ugliness, not erase it and be afraid to look it in the face.

We have been in the unfortunate habit of pretending that we are without fault. Now we've come so far as to begin to destroy the evidence. What is the purpose of this? To fool future generations into believing their history is unflawed? Censoring and 'nicing up' literature and changing the way our past is perceived is highly dangerous and borderline propaganda. To what end?

I find it repellent, particularly since this book was written during a time in which sadly, the word was used an an every day part of speech.... and yet recent titles by authors such as Chuck Palahniuk can use the very same word in his books for pure shock value. Should this be allowed?

Yes.

It has to be allowed. It does not, however, have to be acceptable. It is up to the person reading to decide right from wrong, to learn from the context, to allow themselves to feel the political climate of the book. To know what ideas people are putting out and compare them to the world around us now. If we allow others to think for us and paint history with a prettier paintbrush, will we be surprised when reality hits us square in the face with its ugliness?

Removing the uncomfortable words from books is robbing the people who have worked so hard to put an end to bigotry of their victory- because in 300 years, when all the books have been made nicer, our children's children will not know why it was so wrong to use the n-word, after all- there are no records of it being wrong. I fear that this is the easing in of future censorship to come. This sets a precedent and our complacency about it is what will dictate the outcome of this. I thought we knew better.

All I know is....

There had better be a person called, "Milestone" who owns this restaurant, because every time I drive past it, the Grammar Stickler/Super Nerd inside of me goes completely berserk. One day I am going to stomp right in and demand to meet Milestone, owner of Milestone's and if they can't produce such a person, I am going to return under the cloak of darkness and sharpie out that offensive apostrophe.

30 seconds in the life of Michelle

So I decided to take a break from reading about vampires on wikipedia while eating caramel directly out of a jar with a baby spoon to go outside and take in some nice big breaths of fresh air/spy on the neighbors who left their garbage receptacles out for too long even though the garbage men came YESTERDAY.

I got myself all prepared to take my first big breath of refreshing air that still smells great because the farm down the road has yet to dump pig manure downwind from me as they like to do on nice spring days.

I got alllllll ready, I even thought about baby chickens and fresh green grass and inhaled deeply after the count of three. Well. The little bastard of a black fly who had been watching me and biding his time decided to go on a martyrdom suicide mission and fly directly into my lung ON MY FIRST BREATH. His little act of bug terrorism was a total success. I just know I'm going to get a letter with different kinds of radical bug sects claiming responsibility, too. But I know it wasn't a bee OR a ladybug. I know who did this.

JUST what I needed. Fanatic, militant bugs working together outside my house so that they can ruin my life. WELL I WILL NEVER CONVERT. You hear that, Nature?? NEVER. I'll find some DDT if its the last thing I do. You'll never win, Nature. NEVER.

Shut up and wear your shirt, Fluffy Sparkles.

Why is it just so damned hilarious when it's your own stupid cat in a shirt? Is it because she is just walking around like everything is normal in a shirt? Is it because the shirt is now riding up and she's crooked walking and cats are too stupid to know anything is going on? Is it because I am now too lazy to take the shirt off of her? Is it because my mother used to put our pajamas on us upside down when we were toddlers because she didn't have enough channels and thought it was funny? Is it because I've resorted to blogging about my cat wearing a shirt? Is it all the wine I drank? Nobody will ever know.

I think I'll make the cat wear a damned shirt all the time from now on. I'm in charge around here. Mind your own business. If I can put shirts on all of my guitars and then take pictures of them, then I can put a shirt on my damned cat. I know what's best for her.

So there. Besides, that whole guitar-shirt shenanigan was like, AGES ago. I was under a lot of stress. Oh SURE. Nobody thinks it's weird when people name their guitars, but put one little article of clothing on them and automatically you're CRAZY. "OH she's crazy. She put shirts on her guitars" they all whisper audibly. Not ALL the time, people. Back off.

Look how ugly my couch was then. I think that's the main point, here. That and the Pope said that condoms aggravate the spread of AIDS in Africa. Yeeeah. Hmm. Coo Coooo.

Vive le pain!

Lookie look at my little excursion into French Canadian cooking, peeps. Grand-père au sirop. That's 'grandpa in syrup' for you non-franco nerds. MMmMMMMmm..... Old man in sugar.

It's a dumpling basically cooked in brown sugar syrup... I think I'll change mine to 'Grandpa's bubbling cerebral coagulation in syrup'. Good with milk poured on it.

Soon after serving it, it rose out of the bowl and grew and grew, feeding on our terror- then attacked a GIANT hairless muskrat-mountie (Who just broke in out of nowhere. Stop asking questions.), yelling base french insults while it escaped down the street in it's canoe. I'm pretty sure it's headed for Parliament. I'm thinking it wants to lead the coalition.

All I know is that it's absolutely not getting it's voyageur hat back.

Vive la, vive la,
Vive l'amour!
Vive la, vive la,
Vive l'amour!
Vive l'amour, vive l'amour,
Vive la compagnie!