isabel

By The Way,

I am ordained now and raring to marry people, baptise them and otherwise provide counsel...

Holy Crap! Apparently Men Are Really Downtrodden!

So I was reading the New York Times this morning and found out that "Men Are Becoming the Ad Target of the Gender Sneer" (http://nytimes.com/2005/01/28/business/media/28adco.html). It seems that there are guys out there (and some women too!) who are extremely offended that men are being portayed as nincompoops in a variety of ads. Suggestions that men are ill-equipped to cope with children and household when Mommy-Wife is ill, that they ogle and are rendered dumb by the sight of an attractive gal, and so forth.
Well, what's wrong with that?! I think stereotypes exist for a reason. There really are super-faggy fags, super-dykey dykes, super-dumb blondes, super-brainy brunettes, and high-pitched chirping chihuahuas. So what?
I read thru some of the stuff on http://www.mensactivism.org/, and there's some prattle about their being accused of being Overly Sensitive. Hmmmm. I say, judge for yourself a little :

mens_issues writes "Toys "R" Us has an anti-boy commercial on TV showing two boys exiting their bedroom at the same time. They get stuck in the door and are apparently too stupid to figure out how to solve the problem. Their sister condescendingly says "Maybe next year boys," while reading a Toys "R" Us catalog. She goes into her bedroom and closes the door, which has a sign saying "Girls Rule, Boys Drool."

For the love of God, people, get it together! Aren't there at least a few things more worthy of worry and discussion and "action"?
Perhaps I'm just cold, unfeeling, and guilty of misandry (a new word I learned today. Thanks guys!).

On Pasta

Today at work I found out, accidentally, that pasta can be quite flammable. And smelly. See photo.

detail of pasta 01.24.2005

dark skies ahead

Everbody Loves Freedom, That's What I Hear / Bush in His Second Term, I'll Have Another Beer. Please.

Give Me Liberty or Give Me... What? - The muddle in Bush's inaugural address. By Fred Kaplan
Ugh. We listened to The Event on NPR yesterday, mostly I was hoping to catch Susan Graham sing, she walks on water as far as I know, and I was more excited about that than anything. I was surprised when I heard she would be there to perform, she doesn't really strike me as a huge Republican, but then I remembered that she's from Texas and Christ teaches us to have love in our hearts for all, so I guess it all comes out in the wash. Or something.
Anyway, the NPR peeps talked over her performance as far as I could tell, so I was disappointed not just by the righties and their ilk but also by the liberal radio geeks. Oh well.
I listened to him speak as much as I could, it was difficult, we were in the middle of lunch and the noise level would rise and fall, but I could always hear the "F" word loud and clear. Second to that of course, was the "L" word. It seemed to me that every time he said it it lost more meaning. I'm so unclear on the whole Spreading Freedom thing anyway. Too bad it isn't a sexually transmitted disease.
All I've kept thinking since he was nominated as the Rep. candidate way back when, is that if I were a Republican, I would be dismayed and uncomfortable at the very least, that he was The Candidate that my party chose.
At this point all I can do is quote the niece of my friend S-
"Your hair smells like your house---and that's not good."

Popcorn On Fridays

I have taken to having a bowl of popcorn after work these days. Orville Redenbaeker (?) Sweet-n-Buttery, to be precise. I have found it to be quite addictive and delicious to my mouth. I was at the grocery store on Thursday nite picking up cat food, flan, and beer, when I saw to my delight that the S-n-B was 2 for one, what a happy bargain. During check-out, the cashier asked me if I had tried it before, and I lit up (well, I feel like if I saw myself, I would have said, "Wow, see how I lit up when she asked me about the popcorn?!") and said, "YES! I LOVE IT! IT'S VERY ADDICTIVE!" She raised her left eyebrow a bit and said, somewhat distastefully, that her little brother had seen it and thought for sure that it would be totally gross. I turned my enthusiasm down a notch, and kept my reply to a simple, "Mmmmm, yeah." I walked out to my car. Why would she understand?

gary & neal

the evil deadly kitty

Question of the day today: how selfish am I?
Still haven't answered that yet.
Yesterday while thumbing thru the 1/15/05 issue of the New Yorker, an ad caught my attention, prompting me to go back a few pages :
Alaskan Theatre Cruises!
Come join PATRICIA NEAL, GENA ROWLANDS, ED ASNER, EARTHA KITT,
CLIFF ROBERTSON, LEE ROY REAMS, & 2 STARS WILL BE ADDED
all performing on our ship.
So who will the two "stars to be added" be? Adrienne Barbeau? Meredith Baxter-Birney? (is she still Birney?) Andy Griffith? Brad Pitt?
I will admit that I don't know who Lee Roy Reams is or I would make fun of him.
Hmmm.
Also yesterday, I was doing my laundry at the house of the Doctor and the Professor, for whom I was cat-sitting while they took some time in Berlin. The Professor's cat, M-, loves me, is always ready to lavish love and receive same in return, and is generally quite pleasant to care for. We enjoy reading and watching tv together on the couch.
The Doctor's cat, "Kitty" (her real name) is a totally different kind of flying altogether. She hates me. She has hated me from the first time we met and has not softened with time. The Doctor thinks that she doesn't care for women at all, not just me. I find little comfort in that.
At any rate, I had just checked my laundry in the dryer and as I came thru the kitchen into the dining room I greeted "Kitty" who had appeared there apparently when my back was turned. I said, "Hi Kitty! Good Kitty!" and as I walked by her, she produced a long hiss and swatted my leg, snagging a claw momentarily on my jeans. I pulled away and tried to walk on bravely but couldn't help looking over my shoulder to see her coming after me. I turned and and told her in a firm, loud voice that I was not afraid to throw my beer on her. Whether it was that threat or her satisfaction with the smell of my fear, she sat back down and glared at me. Bitch.

lemurs in a tree

Here we are. It's Saturday, the sky is clear and lovely, it's cold out finally, and I am getting ready to go to work. We're doing a wedding tonite for a former employee, a guy I was really close to for years. Nothing romantic or whatnot, just good pals. He's five years younger than me and has grown into a wonderful artist. He drew 2 of my tattoos, a cup of steaming coffee and a kiwi with a halo.
So the thing is, we gradually grew apart, fell away, maybe? that slow but steady thing that happens sometimes. It may have started when he began seeing a mutual friend and they became completely wrapped up in each other... was that it? It's got me to thinking about those friendships, the ones that slow and stop, for good reasons, bad reasons, or no real reasons at all.