Random Musings

Gilbert Baker died last week.

Don’t know who he is? You should; Baker was the man who created the LGBTQ Pride Rainbow flag way back in 1978 for the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade.

Gilbert Baker was born in Kansas in 1951, and served in the US Army from 1970 to 1972, stationed in San Francisco at the start of what was then called the Gay Liberation Movement.   After being honorably discharged Baker stayed in San Francisco and taught himself to sew; and he used that talent to make banners for gay and anti-war street protest marches, often at a moment’s notice, at the behest of his friend Harvey Milk.

In fact, Harvey Milk rode triumphantly under the first Rainbow Flags Baker made for that June 25th 1978, for the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade.

In 2008 Baker returned to San Francisco to recreate the banners and flags he made in the 70’s for the film Milk.

I smile a little, and feel a sense of Pride, every time I see that flag ... especially the huge one at Key West Pride.

RIP Gilbert.

In the wake of reports that he is a sexual harasser, Bill O’Reilly is facing the loss of advertisers for his Fox news show. As of yesterday some forty advertisers, from BMW to Allstate, have pulled their ads from his show. In fact, just about the only people supporting O’Reilly now, are his fellow male employees at Fox and a certain “pussy grabbing” president.

And that speaks volumes in and of itself.

At age 73 Barry Manilow has finally come out publicly in an interview with People magazine in which he talks about being gay and married to his manager Garry Kief.

Manilow and Kief have been together for 39 years, though keeping their relationship secret to many people.

Manilow admits he’s always been hesitant to discuss the relationship — and to come out publicly, even after he finally married Kief in April 2014.

In 2015, news of their marriage and Manilow’s sexuality made headlines, something the legend calls “a blessing and a curse” but he still refused to address it publicly:

“I thought I would be disappointing [the fans] if they knew I was gay. So I never did anything, [but] when they found out that Garry and I were together, they were so happy. The reaction was so beautiful — strangers commenting, ‘Great for you!’ I’m just so grateful for it.”

Naturally, Manilow is being blasted for not coming out earlier but, as I said on social media, you come out when YOU’RE ready, not when WE’RE ready.

Welcome out Barry.

Last Friday our local weathermen predicted a rainy wet day ... and it poured, flooding streets and making it impossible to drive through town.

On Monday, they predicted a huge storm coming through town with the threat of tornadoes and hail as big as golf balls and we got a Spring shower.

On Wednesday, the same tools, talked about the wave of storms coming through; the first would be around 4PM—though it started at 2PM—and would be bad, but the second would be worse, damaging winds, trees down, power outages, and the third, coming overnight, would see tornadoes touching down in South Carolina.

We got the first band through, ending at about 5PM and then ... yes, a lovely Spring shower.

Now, I get the weathermen cannot “predict” the weather, but their accuracy is just God awful. I tend to think the worst of the minor storms and think nothing about the forecasted big ones.

That said, this morning was a gorgeous sunny, cool, calm day in Smallville.

Also coming out as gay is Daniel Newman, the actor who plays Daniel on The Walking Dead. Newman came out in a video posted to Twitter and said:

“I'm #OUTandPROUD #LGBT Love you guys. Be proud to be yourself. We need everyone just the way you are!”

Newman says he decided to come out when he was working at a shelter for homeless LGBTQ youth and a girl thanked him for volunteering as a straight ally.

He told her he was gay, and she said, “Why have you never said that publicly before? You could help change our lives.”

“It hit me like a gut punch. It felt like someone had knocked the wind out of me. I realized how important it is in this day and age to be visible; have people know who you are…When you are accomplishing incredible things and you are hiding who you are, you are hurting hundreds of millions of people….By us staying quiet, we’re partially to blame for kids getting beat up and ridiculed, for stereotypes and stigmas….Now is not the time any longer to keep it private.”

Exactly; when one of us comes out, it makes it easier for others to come out, but, again, you come out when YOU’RE ready ...

It’s an individual choice.

Welcome out, Dan.

I didn’t see a single Hot Man on television this week ... at least none that hadn’t been seen here before. So I decided to post a photo of the Hottest Man at Casa Bob y Carlos ...

Sadly, Carlos wouldn’t pose, so I’ll go with the second Hottest Man in the house.

I kid ... this is the hottest man in our house: Tuxedo.

Oy! Look at the punum on that cat!

And in other Big Gay News ... a federal appeals court in Chicago ruled this week that the 1964 Civil Rights Act also protects LGBT employees from workplace discrimination.

This marks the first time that a federal appellate court has come to that conclusion. The decision by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals comes after it threw out an earlier finding by three of its own judges that the law doesn’t cover sexual-orientation bias; it also comes as President _____’s administration has begun setting its own policies on LGBT rights, even though he cannot seem to make up his mind.

In January, _____ said he would enforce an Obama administration order barring companies that do federal work from workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual identity, but a month later _____ also revoked the Obama administration’s guidance on transgender students’ use of public school bathrooms, deferring to states.

But, as anyone with a brain knows, LGBT rights are civil rights, and so it’s nice to hear that a court has ruled it to be true.

Still, as we know, the march goes on.

In a continuing freefall, _____’s approval ratings have tumbled down to 35% ... meaning 65%—and that must include some of his supporters who’ve finally realized what they’ve done—of Americans thinks he’s unqualified to be President.

As I like to Tweet to _____ every so often, he’s fast becoming “The Best WORST President EVER” and perhaps he should have that turned into a gold sign he can hang from his jail cell door.

Random Musings

TLC has canceled the Duggar's television program, months after the release of the reports that Josh Duggar is a child molester.

At work, I have the uncanny ability to say anything to the clients because most people … most people … like my sense of humor.

So, this happened … client comes in, and we've done business with her before and I am acquainted with her, so I step up to help her:

Bob: How are you doing today?

Client: I fucking hate people.

Bob: Um … okay?

Client: I’ve been dealing with fucking assholes all day long and I am at the end of my rope. How do you deal with fucking asshole clients?

Bob: You tell me … how am I doing so far?

What? Was that bad???

PS She laughed.

I thought the Confederate flag issue was a distinctly Southern issue, but it appears the lunacy extends out west …

Case in point: Republican, of course, Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore, who sent out an email blast last week about the impending vote here in South Carolina to remove the flag. She defended the flag, calling it part of U.S. history, and saying Americans need to remember both the good and the bad parts of our shared history.

Um, Michele? You dim-bulb? That’s what we were saying about the flag, but we added that we don’t think it should be celebrated and flown over our statehouse. We all know its part of our history and needs to be remembered which is why the flag is being set up in a museum.

But Michelle is dumb, and she doesn’t get it, and she’s probably a bit of a toothless, cousin-fucking, racist hillbilly, even out there in Nevada, because now she has vowed to install a horn on her truck that sounds like the one in General Lee, the car from the TV show Dukes of Hazzard.

Hopefully the horn can at least drown out her idiotic, and stupid, rants.

This week’s Hot Men are, well to put it nicely, a couple of distinct choices. Neither one is classically handsome, but, for me at least, there’s something about each of them that gives me a tingle.

Rami Malek is the star of Mr. Robot and plays a nerdy, morphine-addicted, computer hacker. And, yeah, there’s something there … I’m guessing it’s the eyes, that I just find so attractive.

Then we have Justin Fichelson, a realtor and co-star of Million Dollar Listing: San Francisco. Again, not handsome in the usual context, but there’s something there; plus, he has kind of a cute little giggle.

So, you see, the mens don’t have to be beauties, or hotties, sometimes they just have to have something.

[Rami Malek, Justin Fichelson]

So, while Donald [t]Rump might be cheering, and bloviating, about being at the front of the GOP Clown Minivan, we also have some other news about The [t]Rump.

Out of all GOP contenders vying for the White House, [t]Rump is the weakest competitor against Democrat Hillary Clinton. Yup, in a nationwide survey, [t]Rump leads all of the GOP 17%, with Jeb! in second at 14%; but match up [t]Rump with Hillary and those numbers fall dramatically: he trails her by 17-points.

So, g’head GOP and Teabagger voters, put [T[]Rump up and then watch as he crumbles against Clinton.

[photo source]

So, in our home office, on the floor beside the desk, is a doggie-cat bed — it’s either one of those things depending on who’s sleeping in it at the time.

Sidenote: that photo was taken on one of those rare days when they shared the bed.

When I’m on the computer, Ozzo comes back with me and sleeps in the bed, but then Tuxedo, the Alpha Pet, sits on the desk, above the pet bed, hovering and staring like a gargoyle, literally scaring Ozzo out of the bed, at which time Tuxedo gets into it and  falls asleep.

Recently, though, Ozzo, who has been neutered, apparently grew some balls, and decided he wouldn’t give up his bed. So Tuxedo tried a new tactic.

He still stood on the desk staring at Ozzo, and then, suddenly, Ozzo would leap from the bed like something had bitten him. I coerced the dog back into the bed, only to have leap from it a few seconds later. this happened about five times before I took a look at the bed, and saw the ballpoint pens and giant paper clips that Tuxedo was pushing off the desk onto Ozzo to make him get out of the bed.

Best part? Tuxedo didn’t even want the bed … he just liked making Ozzo jump.

That cat!

Oh Camille Cosby … what-the-ever-loving-hell is wrong with you?

Camille has stood by her husband, accused serial rapist Bill Cosby, even in the face of nearly fifty women stepping forward to say he drugged them and raped them, but her latest response is the worst of all.

A source — and, yeah, I know, sometimes sources aren’t exactly truthful, but this time it fits in with Camille’s MO — says:

“Camille still doesn’t believe that Bill provided drugs and had sex with women without their consent. She’s well aware of his cheating, but she doesn’t believe that her husband is a rapist.”

So, she knows he’s a serial cheater, and has been throughout their marriage, but he would  never drug women; okay, have that opinion, but it’s what she says next that irks the hell outta me.

She says the sex was consensual; that these fifty women told Bill Cosby to drug them so he could have sex with them, or, as I see it, rape them.

Sure, maybe once, maybe, but fifty times? Open your eyes, Camille. You can still love him, if you choose, but your husband is a rapist.

[photo source] 

Gosh, I loathe weather-people. I mean, I’m sure it must get boring because, for the most part, the weather in most places doesn’t vary a great deal day-to-day, so they have to do something to make it seem ominous and threatening, or, at least, interesting.

This week, watching GMA over breakfast, the weatherperson was talking about the severe storms taking place in the Midwest — as they have for weeks, and have been doing this time of year, forever — and she said this:

“There were over 900 storm reports.”

Sounds innocuous enough, though it also sounds like there were 900 storms, and not 900 phone calls about, perhaps, one storm. I mean, look at it like this: say my house caught fire … goddess forbid … knock wood … hurl salt … spit to the right … and the fire department got calls from all twenty of our neighbors.

Is that reports of twenty fires, or twenty reports of one fire?

Use your words carefully weatherpeople. Sheesh.

[photo source]

The Center Square Weatherman

I loved Paul Lynde. On Hollywood Squares he was the King, or Queen, of the double entendre. And, as Uncle Arthur, on Bewitched, he never failed to make me laugh. Which makes this clip, from 1978 all the more funny. WSPD in Toledo, Ohio let Paul Lynde do the weather. This could have been you, Sam Champion. Could'a been you! courtesy of OMG Blog.

Musings

Here are a few things that i find interesting, annoying, cute or bothersome.

Tyra Banks took off her weave on the premiere of her talk show this week. i sort of wish she'd take off her head so we might never have to hear her speak again.

Jay Leno has left the Tonight Show so he can do the same show ninety minutes earlier. Does this seem like a stupid idea to anyone but me? I don't like Jay. I don't think he's funny. His humor is pedestrian. I will not be watching this mess.

I joined Twitter so I could rant about Joe Wilson. I don't know how long I'll stay this time, because my last try lasted one, er, Tweet.

I don't like Mike Isabella on Top Chef. he's an arrogant douchebag, and it seems he only wins when he works with someone else, like the Voltaggio brothers--Bryan is the cute one. I so wanted him to get the boot--or as Carlos says it now, You ARE the weakest link. Good bye! I was also hoping Mattin would go. it would have been great fun to see the french guy go in the French food challenge. Sidenote: Is it me, or does Mattin remind anyone else of PeeWee Herman, albeit a French PeeWee?

I saw Glee last night. I liked it. i wasn't as bowled over as some people were, but I thought it was cute. Of course, it didn't hurt to have Matthew Morrison in a bathtub, and the delicious Jane Lynch is a joy forever, plus Lea Michele has a lovely voice. and the writing is quite sharp. Hmmm, maybe I was bowled over?

Obama's speech last night was terrific. He knows how to speak, which is something we haven't seen in a president since last century, and he gets his point across. He was firm in his convictions and stated them brilliantly. I loved how he said he would call out those people who keep spreading lies about health care reform. Are you listening Death Panel Palin and Asshat Michele Bachmann?

I don't know how weatherpeople keep their jobs. Yesterday, it was supposed to be mid-80s with a slight slight SLIGHT chance of rain, but about 9AM the sky turned black and it poured and poured. I wonder what'll happen when the weatheridiots call for extreme heat. Perhaps the Earth will become the Sun?
While Carlos and I were doing our Gaybor Day shopping up in Charlotte, we happened upon some lamps. We never agree on lamps. he likes, and this is true, Monkeys. On. Lamps. I, however, do not. He'll find a lamp and I'll sneer and say, No....no....nononononononono. Then I find one and he'll grimace and says No...no...nononononononono. So, I find one that has a more traditional shape that Carlos might light--an urn shape--but it's made of shiny silver metal and therefore satisfies the need for something contemporary that i like. i hold it up, and Carlos says, No....no...nonononononono, I don't like metal. Nine years together and I did not know this. But imagine my surprise when, just a few aisles over, he said he found a bed frame that he loved. Yes, you guessed it, made of metal, in a shiny silver. If I didn't think he'd start crying I would have left him in the store.
Paris Hilton.
Lindsay Lohan.
Mark and Jenny Sanford.
Joe Wilson.
That's all.

Smallville. Stop. Closed For Business. Stop. Snow. Stop!

Yesterday the news in and around Smallville was all about the blizzard. It was gonna snow, and it was gonna snow hard. Six-to-ten inches in the Upstate, and three-to-five here in the Midlands.

Last night Carlos and I met Thomas and Roger for an early dinner--sausage and peppers and some fine pinot noir--before the storm. As Carlos and I drove out of Smallville, the rain and winds blew. When we pulled up in front of the restaurant it began to sleet.

Eat fast, I thought, the snows a'comin'.

Ate slow. Laughed. Chatted. Laughed. Laughed. Laughed. Roger and Thomas are a fun couple and we all shared storied and giggled. One of those nice meals you almost never want to end.

But it did.

And we returned home to all the special news bulletins of what was closed, and what was closing and preparing for the blizzard. There were maps, and radar images, and forecasts and it all seemed so serious.

They cancelled Smallville. Seriously, it doesn't exist today.

No mail.

No banks.

No schools.

Uh.........no snow.

That's right. Not. One. Flake.

Weatherpeople? Pffffft.

Greetings from Smallville

Well, the weatherman said it would happen, but I tend to think most weather 'people' are idiots, so I'm eating my words this morning.
Snow came to Smallville during the night, and it's still snowing now. Makes the house look so wintry and pretty. We haven't had snow stick to the ground for longer than a minute since we moved here so this is lovely. Of course, being Smallville, and under a quarter inch of snow EVERYTHING IS CLOSED!
Ah well, snuggle in next to a fire and watch the inauguration and the beginning of a great new era for America.
Yes We Can.
Yes We Did.
Yes We Are.