Rigel

See https://www.gayauthors.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=8401 and https://www.gayauthors.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=8631

Georgia judge halts lesbian adoption: http://www.washblade.com/thelatest/thelate...m?blog_id=12344 A fascinating tale involving lesbians, homophobic judge and foster parents, and the law. VLista writes stories involving kids in foster care, but this is as intricately plotted as any author could ask for. --Rigel

We went out and purchased a pole-based shelf for our shower. It's got a pole which tensions out to the height you need in the very corner inside your shower, and the pole has three or four little shelves at adjustable heights that don't take up very much space in the corner of the shower. Beneath a couple of shelves are little bars you could hang a washcloth from. We've also got towel bars in the bathroom outside the shower where we can hang wet stuff. --Rigel

In college, a good friend of mine lived on the beach by Long Island Sound. (They rented houses to college students from Sept.-May. and then in the summer rented the same house as a vacation house, charging for one week what the college students paid for one month.) Every year, my friend would schedule an annual "Lincoln's Birthday" party for some random date in February, and inevitably, it snowed the day and night of his party. I remember wonderful walks on the beach in the snowstorms at his parties. Of course, that was in Connecticut, not Malibu, Calif. --Rigel

Happy Birthday, LB! One of these days we need to celebrate with a trip to a Uighur restaurant. I can see it now: birthday candles nestled into the mutton. :-) -Rigel

May I also suggest, while you're in the general vicinity, visiting Bryce Canyon National Park (http://www.nps.gov/brca/) and Zion National Park (http://www.nps.gov/zion/). Each is quite different, both from each other and from the Grand Canyon. Actually, you can't go wrong in that part of the country--almost anywhere you turn will be a place with fascinating scenery, culture and history. --Rigel

First, best wishes to Taylor for a speedy and complete recovery. What Xiao Chun said is good, but I also wonder if a bit of your anger at your father's fighting is actually a deflection of anger at yourself, for being so able to be angry with Taylor that you have all-out fights with him. You can talk with your father about it, but you can change your own behavior more easily than his. Just because your father apparently gets physical in his disputes with his loved ones doesn't mean you also have to. If Taylor's illness serves as a wake-up to you to think about your own anger management, then it may have been a Good Thing in the long run.

When I look at those photographs and process what I see as depictions of abstract sculpture, I think "How beautiful! What great interesting curves and colors." But you are SO not going to convince me to actually get in to one of carts that provide an intimate, close-up experience with said abstract sculptures. I will wait patiently on the ground watching the kinetic sculpture in operation from a stable perspective. My upper gastro-intestinal tract will thank me for it. Happy riding.

happy birthday (if using all caps is scream on the web, is using no caps like whispering it?) --rigel

A plain, vanilla, boring Happy Birthday with no special fonts and no attached graphics. As we get older, we can appreciate a quietly relaxing birthday. Hoping yours has(d) just enough excitement, though. --Rigel

Yet another Hapy Birthday!

Another fascinating article, from the New York Times, about gay evangelical Christians trying to reconcile two discordant aspects of their lives: December 12, 2006 Gay and Evangelical, Seeking Paths of Acceptance By NEELA BANERJEE RALEIGH, N.C.

Some performers to look for in your searching: Nina Simone, Odetta, Pete Seeger, Peggy Seeger (Pete's half-sister) Women's rights singer-songwriters: Meg Christiansen, Holly Near A resource of traditional song lyrics to search through: The Digital Tradition at www.mudcat.org --Rigel

Here's one of my favo(u)rite women's rights songs, Peggy Seeger's "I'm Gonna Be an Engineer." I'M GONNA BE AN ENGINEER When I was a little girl I wished I was a boy I tagged along behind the gang and wore my corduroys. Everybody said I only did it to annoy But I was gonna be an engineer Mamma said, "Why can't you be a lady? Your duty is to make me the mother of a pearl Wait until you're older, dear And maybe you'll be glad that you're a girl. Dainty as a Dresden statue, gentle as a Jersey cow, Smooth as silk, gives cream and milk Learn to coo, learn to moo That's what you do to be a lady, now. When I went to school I learned to write and how to read History, geography and home economy And typing is a skill that every girl is sure to need To while away the extra time until the time to breed And then they had the nerve to ask, what would I like to be? I says, "I'm gonna be an engineer!" "No, you only need to learn to be a lady The duty isn't yours, for to try to run the world An engineer could never have a baby Remember, dear, that you're a girl" She's smart --- for a woman. I wonder how she got that way? You get no choice, you get no voice Just stay mum, pretend you're dumb. That's how you come to be a lady, today. Well, I started as a typist but I studied on the sly Working out the day and night so I could qualify And every time the boss came in, he pinched me on the thigh Said, "I've never had an engineer!" "You owe it to the job to be a lady The duty of the staff is to give the boss a whirl The wages that you get are crummy, maybe But it's all you get, 'cause you're a girl" Then Jimmy came along and we set up a conjugation We were busy every night with loving recreation I spent my days at work so he could get an education And now he's an engineer! He said: "I know you'll always be a lady The duty of my darling is to love me all her life Could an engineer look after or obey me? Remember, dear, that you're my wife!" As soon a Jimmy got a job, I studied hard again Then busy at me turret-lathe a year or two, and then The morning that the twins were born, Jimmy says to them "Your mother was an engineer!" "You owe it to the kids to be a lady Dainty as a dish-rag, faithful as a chow Stay at home, you got to mind the baby Remember you're a mother now!" Every time I turn around there's something else to do Cook a meal or mend a sock or sweep a floor or two Listening to Jimmy Young - it makes me want to spew I was gonna be an engineer. I only wish that I could be a lady I'd do the lovely things that a lady's s'posed to do I wouldn't even mind if only they would pay me Then I could be a person too. What price for a woman? You can buy her for a ring of gold, To love and obey, without any pay, You get a cook and a nurse for better or worse You don't need a purse when a lady is sold. Oh, but now the times are harder and me Jimmy's got the sack; I went down to Vicker's, they were glad o have me back. But I'm a third-class citizen, my wages tell me that But I'm a first-class engineer! The boss he says "We pay you as a lady, You only got the job because I can't afford a man, With you I keep the profits high as may be, You're just a cheaper pair of hands." You got one fault, you're a woman; You're not worth the equal pay. A bitch or a tart, you're nothing but heart, Shallow and vain, you've got no brain, Well, I listened to my mother and I joined a typing pool Listened to my lover and I put him through his school If I listen to the boss, I'm just a bloody fool And an underpaid engineer I been a sucker ever since I was a baby As a daughter, as a mother, as a lover, as a dear But I'll fight them as a woman, not a lady I'll fight them as an engineer! Words and music by Peggy Seeger in 1970 Copyright Stormking Music, Inc. (sound bite sample: http://www.smithsonianglobalsound.org/trac...px?itemid=44646 has only the a and b parts of the tune, not the c part.)

http://www.crvboy.org/stories/cpl/wc1/c01.html Carter's Army, by Christopher Patrick Lydon

I use Safari, but than again, I work on a Mac. I also have Firefox, which I use from time to time. Also, many browsers allow you to transfer your bookmarks/favorites from another program or computer, though the procedure for doing so will vary based on your operating system and browsers. --Rigel

I haven't seen the movie yet, but from what I've been reading, it sounds like Sacha Baron Cohen uses the Borat chartacter to put people into Candid Camera type embarrasing situations, and then captures them being themselves. Cohen sounds sort of like Allen Funt with sex appeal.

I'm another one who started off reading a story on another site--Nifty. It was a while ago, I guess--dkstories's "Do Over"--and it was just a few chapters long at that point. Now I'm an impatient one, and discovered, thanks to Google, that stories often appeared in multiple places, and lo (not ot mention behold)--the versions on GA were much more complete than on Nifty. So I came here and was able to read farther ahead into the plot than I would have at Nifty--which only got me so far, because then I reached the end of what he had psoted here and needed to wait week by week as each new installment came out. Googling also clued me in to the Forum feature of this site--I was very much taken with another story at the time--Grasshopper's "Just Hit Send," and found that forums discussing that story were everywhere except at IOMFATS, which hosted his story, but where the forum rules pretty well precluded serious story discussions. Gay Authors has, along with several other sites, given me hours of pleasurable reading over the past few years, but GA has also offered something more--through forums and blogs and chats, it's offered me a real community of friends to share my reading with, and parts of my life with. (Thanks, Myr!) --Rigel

Myr-- Another voice of thanks, for making a difference in my life, for providing me with great reading, and for giving me a virtual space to meet all sorts of wonderful people. I participate in other boards on other topics, but you've truly created a supportive community here of people with many backgrounds and of many ages, and that's no small feat. --Rigel

So how WAS the fair? --Rigel

Mazel tov! --Rigel

Peaceful nights, but not boring! Hugs also. (If you need an escape, I'm just down the highway.) --Rigel

I love hummus! Occasionally I even make it myself, starting by grinding up chicpeas or fava beans. You have a lot more control over texture when you make your own. There are lots of interesting kinds available in the supermarkets--Asmars and Tribe of Two Sheiks and Sabra are among my favorites; I want a lot of tehina (sesame paste) in my hummus, even though it's fattening, and a good deal of garlic. The other thing I sometimes make is mainly tehina--start with sesame paste. Depending on the kind you buy, it might need a lot of diluting with a little water, a lot of lemon juice, some salt, a lot of garlic, maybe some cumin, and either cayenne pepper or tabasco. Place artistically on a plate, drizzle with olive oil and paprika, and eat by dipping good pita bread into it. --Rigel

Congratulations about the new job. The hour's commute souinds like a pain, but given this part of the world, not to be unexpected. Nice ending to SOOTB. And on a completely irrelevant tangent, another board I'm on drew my attention to this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbE7SdsgcL0...ted&search= which contains a scene about 5 or 6 minutes in that makes Elton John in a bird suit look normal by comparison. --Rigel

Congratulations on the new job! Getting in a mood to finish SOOTB is a nice side benefit to me and the rest of the folks here, but being able to see a way of moving into your own place--that's going to make life a lot nicer for you. --Rigel