Former Member

During Christmas Pageants at my father’s church, the Angels were always girls. The boys were the Wisemen and Shepherds. And I hated being forced to participate! It was a relatively small congregation, so older boys were the Wisemen and my Sunday School class supplied the (three) Shepherds. But, being the Seventies, they started doing more creative Christmas Programs and didn’t do the traditional story in the old-fashioned, traditional way. It was always suffocatingly hot with the chapel jam-packed with parents who didn’t always attend church services even though the Program was in the evening.

I noticed the barefoot question remains unanswered! ;–)

That’s an interesting version of gender-fluid. ;–) I remember reading a print novel where an experiment with a cure for AIDS unexpectedly ended up creating two new chromosome types beyond X and Y. Periodically, they’d transition similar to werewolves except between genders. It was a surprise when the first generation experienced the gender change at puberty. I don’t think it was as frequently as once a month though… ;–)

Poor people spend much more time on transit trying to get from one place to another. In the US at least, drivers do not appreciate how much less traffic is on the road competing with them for space because many of us are on buses or trains. It frequently takes me two or more times as long to use the bus or train than if I still had a car because buses and trains run so infrequently. Poor people wait in lots of lines. Rich people pay others to wait for them or they skip the lines entirely (as with online shopping). Rich people often have automatic machines for tasks that poor people have to do manually or pay to do (as in laundromats/launderettes).

And the difficulty finding non-animal-based (ie no leather) shoes? ;–) If you sew your own clothes, do you know the source of the fabric and the fibers used to create it? Our economy is designed to disguise and obscure the origins of most products. Many products can legally be labeled as ‘Made in the US’ even though they’re actually made across the border in Mexico (it all has to do with the value of the components and where those components came from). I don’t eat fish or seafood, but I keep hearing about intentional misidentification of less desirable fish species as much more expensive varieties as well as farmed fish being sold as wild-caught. I’ll just have to get my daily dose of plastic micro-pellets some other way! ;–) How much of the unlabeled produce comes from China? How much comes from Mexico? How much is imported from Chile? How much is sourced in California? Is any of it local to your area? California produces a huge percentage of the produce consumed in the US, but we still import Mexican and Chilean goods (usually clearly identified). I know that Chinese produce ends up here too (including most of the fresh garlic), but I can’t recall ever seeing any signs identifying anything as such.

Weird enough to be near the top of the happiest countries list along with your weird neighbors, Norway and Denmark! ;–)

For some people, having the ‘right’ bits between their legs, the ‘right’ color skin, and having the ‘right’ amount of money (ie more than some small countries) trumps anything else.

In Safari, I block all videos (except for the stubborn ones that evade my filters). So I opened this page in Firefox, saw the video’s still image and grabbed the link so I could download it in a utility. My current favorite utility couldn’t get the video. My old favorite had a problem and in trying its built-in workaround, I got the message that the video was unavailable – it’s possible that there’s a age-block involved. My old favorite won’t let me sign in to my Google account which has prevented me from downloading other videos. ;–) This is what happens when you’re cheap and you can’t afford to pay for better utilities. Okay, I just tried watching the video in Firefox and it still comes up as unavailable. The one I listened to was audio plus a picture. I decided I didn’t want to look at one of the several live versions. She’s kind of angry, isn’t she? ;–)

I mentioned that once here on GA and the response I got suggested that ethnic-fetish porn ‘proved’ that the Gay community is not racist! How can people deny that link? One of the most common homophobic insults is to suggest that a Gay man is a watered-down version of a woman. As if a woman is a lesser being. As if femininity is equivalent to weakness. As if emotions themselves are a weakness. Some of the strongest people I know are women! And some of the weakest people I know are men. Very insecure straight men.

I’m getting a message that the video is unavailable – geo-blocked in the US?

Star Trek was controversial because of things like the not-the-first interracial kiss on US TV, the half-white/half-black aliens who hated each other because their colors were reversed, and having a multi-ethnic crew on the Bridge (even though, as Leonard Hofstadter pointed out [on Big Bang Theory], the Black lady still answered the space telephone). There were also episodes that were anti-war at the height of the US military meddling in Southeast Asia.

You’re forgetting the ethnic aspect to that as well. People of Color existing are often considered to be political. Cis white Gay men consider themselves to be apolitical even if they espouse the rhetoric of the far right. There are times when it feels to me like those in power are not aligned with the views of the majority of LGBTQs. I post my thoughts on Frameline LGBTQ+ film festival movies in The Pit because some of the movies are political in nature and others, which I do not see as political, are judged as political by others. It was easier to get people to view what I wrote in those Topics (the majority of which are apolitical) before they walled off The Pit and made people jump through extra hoops to access its contents.

Anything I say here will be used to punish me.

So he’s going out on his missions naked then? ;–)

Many of the things he says remind me of the things Margaret Cho said about her experience starring on All American Girl on network TV. Experts who ‘know better’ kept telling her she needed to lose weight (because her round face made her look fat on screen) and gave her advice on how to appear ‘more Asian.’ I think that teenaged girls are more likely to accept a young Gay singer than their straight male classmates who conversely would find a young Lesbian to be sexually attractive (even though she’d be unlikely to be interested in the boys). Corporations are inherently very conservative and averse to controversy even if the artist’s fans are open to the challenge. Corporations cater to the lowest common denominator which is why there are so many interchangeable singers and action movies available. Streaming was supposed to short-circuit that failing, but marketing has proven to be critical to the success of most singers.

You know I would never suggest that anyone is as shallow as I am… ;–)

Thanks to @Mikiesboy, @Wayne Grayand @Timothy M.for the respective shout-outs ❤️

I finally figured out how to delete a quote the other day and I just discovered it works for a Spoiler too! You hover over the upper left corner of the Quote/Spoiler until you see [+], click it so the Quote/Spoiler is selected (it’s not highlighted with colors or anything, so I don’t know what else to call it), and hit Delete on your keyboard! ;–)

yesterdaysprint:

It’s next door to a very busy fire station? The other neighbor, an internet ‘celebrity,’ thinks it’s funny to use your new townhouse as Justin’s ‘mop bucket’ every morning? There’s a drug rehab facility across the street? There’s a homeless services agency backed up to the townhouse? There’s no garage and no street parking? ;–) I agree the 8.5M doesn’t sound like much. In Silicon Valley, the average house sells for about $1M. There’s a story on tonight’s news about a custom hillside home overlooking Silicon Valley on the market for $20M. Prices are also extremely high in San Francisco. The prices are driven by all those ‘instant’ tech millionaires and those insane IPOs. (We’re heading towards a housing price correction when the Wall Street finally realizes that Über and many others will never make a profit. Just like what happened when the Dot Com bubble burst.)

I have some alternate suggestions for that torpedo! Hint: it doesn’t involve either characters, readers, or the author of this story… ;–)

At least if Noah gets overwhelmed, he doesn’t have to be there during the photoshoot. His Nana can take Noah out to the beach or something. Especially if Ben scares Noah. ;–) If Noah can find an occupation like caring for animals, he can better earn a living for himself and gain more self-esteem. While it’s not necessarily a bad thing, special needs people do not need to be restricted to jobs like Walmart greeter. It’s possible to dream of bigger and more significant things. ;–) It sounds like Noah will always need at least minimal assistance from his Nana, his father(s), and others. Since he doesn’t have siblings, at some point there will need to be someone from outside the family included. Finding someone trustworthy will be essential. I know I struggle to deal with some daily issues. If I were wealthy, I know I’d have someone come in to do cleaning for me! If they did at least some cooking, that would be even better. But I’m on a very limited income and that only covers my basic needs and a few extras. ;–)

I hate mysteries! I get lost in all the deadends and red herrings! Who’s going to find me when I wander off into the frozen wilderness and fall into a lava tube or something? ;–)

When I worked in retail, I usually had to work weekends. In most of my jobs, my days off floated around from week to week. But when I was an Assistant Manager at a bookstore, my boss preferred having Friday and Saturday off (usually the busiest days), so I got Sunday and Monday off. I can imagine an even more selfish manager taking every weekend off and making their assistant take Monday and Tuesday off… ;–)