what i want you to buy

pay close attention to that green sidebar to the right.  things change in it quite often.  

first there was the will blog for coffee button. click on it and you can donate any amount to help support tuesdays. all major credit cards are accepted. buy me coffee, send me to aruba, send me to aruba to have coffee. whatever you like.  just do it soon, 'cause it's cold in new york.

now there's a new ploy exciting new feature in that green column for me to earn a few extra bucks to enhance your tuesdays experience. i cleverly call it: BUY THIS STUFF.

right now it has five items in it. each item has something to do with a recent post here on tuesdays (wanna read about the "fountain" funded by the nea in 2008? like that groucho video and wanna order a whole collection?) either that, or it's something i just wish you would buy so we could talk about it. (remember gay boy record parties? when you'd come over on a saturday night, we'd sit in my basement drinking grape soda, and i'd play the new prince album for you? kinda like that. but without taking off our clothes.)

if you "mouse over" an item, my little note to you shows up. see? try it. now click buy. go on, it's easy. all the other kids are doing it.

okay, it's an amazon.com ad.  thing is, when you click on those amazon links and actually buy something, i get money. dough-re-me. cash on the barrel head. seriously. not a lot, but in today's economy, when people are begging pleading asking politely for a cup of coffee, or to be sent to aruba? well, every little bit helps. and the more you buy, the longer my electric bill gets paid.

the charm offensive

president barack obama's charm quotient was readily on display at saturday night's alfalfa banquet in washington, d.c.

the dinner was founded in 1913 by a group of southerners to honor the birthday of general robert e. lee. during his speech, obama joked that if lee were in at the dinner, he'd be "202 years old, and terribly confused."

much was made of the fact that alaska governor sarah palin would be in attendance, and according to chicago tribune columnist clarence page, obama didn't let that opportunity slip:

"Good to see Gov. Palin here. I never expected to see you pallin' around in this crowd. Congratulations on your Golden Globe for '30 Rock'."

mr. president, there's something you should know...

little eric cantor, the republican whip, got off a good line over the weekend, at the republican retreat (what fun that must have been.)

cantor, commenting on two of president obama's cabinet nominees (timothy geithner and tom daschle) and their problems with back taxes, said:

“It is easy for the other side to advocate for higher taxes because — you know what? — they don’t pay them.”

ooohh. ouch.

and i'm serious. ouch. he's right. the problems for geithner, confirmed as treasury secretary despite having revealed previously unpaid back taxes, and now daschle, obama's nominee for health secretary – much more serious numbers in owed, and paid, back taxes – are an embarrassment for obama not so much because of the taxes themselves, but because of the aura surrounding the new president and his administration. the expectations are so high (set by obama himself) regarding honesty, transparency, and a new kind of government, that these oversights seem even more significant than they are.

don't talk to me about back taxes – it's not a subject i'm happy discussing. for someone making the kind of money daschle or geithner made in the past (modest by some standards, massive by my own) to have this kind of error does not surprise me. what is surprising is the slowness to reveal said discrepancies. granted, they both were revealed, by the parties involved. but neither were caught by obama's vetting team, and both men were somewhat slow to fess up.

geithner answered the questions about his situation and was confirmed, and daschle undoubtedly will be too. but both of these nominees (along with the investigation of gov. bill richardson) put a stain on what has been a squeaky clean transition and first week or so of the obama era.

just a thought

77 of 168 republican national committee members voted, on the final ballot, for the whites-only country club guy.

quote of the day

"Michael Steele was positively my last preference for RNC Chair -- since he was, and is, by far, the most effective, articulate center - right voice of the Republican Party, with a firm but friendly manner on TV and, thus, the best possible choice for the GOP to appeal to the broad middle of American society.

For all those reasons, I hoped the RNC would not elect him.

I am surprised that a party that currently has Rush Limbaugh as its leading voice (my personal preference for Republican Chair) would be wise enough to reject Mr. Limbaugh and elect Michael Steele.

As a Democrat, I am very disappointed."

– lanny davis, democratic strategist

please speak clearly, into my right ear

PART ONE: clothes given to you, previously worn

megan grabbed my arm as we were passing backstage. "quick, go to the hair table and look at the word puzzle book," she said. "page four, number 37. look at the answer chris wrote."

she was talking in hushed, hurried tones, so i knew it had to be good.

i rushed to the hair table and there it was: super word puzzles part 3! in bright, bold, primary colors. i turned to page four. one sentence clues with spaces for each letter of the answer. number 37: clothes given to you, previously worn by another member of your family, a sister or brother. there were 11 spaces below that sentence for the reader to write an answer. chris had already been there. and had written in an answer.

H A M M I E D O W N S

hammie downs. was it two words, did he think? or one: hammiedowns.

____________

PART TWO: i don't know any zabows

tim grabbed my arm as we passed each other in the hallway near the dressing rooms. "do you who is here tonight? at the show? alan zabow."

i searched my cranky, rusty memory bank. the virtual rolodex flipped. zahn, zappola, zurawski. nope. no alan zabow.

"i don't know alan zabow," i told tim. he looked at me like i'd admitted to war crimes.

"of course you do! you met him in nashville -- tall, dark hair, good-looking. greek, i think."

"greek. alan zabow?"

"yes."

"i don't know any zabows."

"what?"

i don't know anyone named zabow."

"what?! zab..."

"i don't know anyone..."

"NO," tim said, and then continued as if talking to a very old person or a foreigner – loudly, slowly and deliberately – "ELLEN'S BEAU."

ah.

ellen's beau.

ellen's new boyfriend. yes. i had met him. in nashville. greek. nice looking fellow, i thought.

alan zabow, i did not know.

____________

PART THREE: for all intensive purposes

my friend and former high school prom date anne touched my arm in the middle of brunch. "you know, isn't it funny? i just learned this, maybe two years ago..." anne, a former fulbright scholar, was in town with her boyfriend and daughter. someone had said something brilliant (probably not me) ending with the phrase "for all intensive purposes," when anne had touched my arm.

"...it's not 'for all intensive purposes'," she said, "it's all intents and purposes."

anne learned it "maybe two years ago," i had just learned it in that moment. intents and purposes. huh. makes much more sense. i never really thought about it, but for all intensive purposes? what the hell could that mean? only for purposes that are intensive? or...for all purposes that are intensive? what about purposes that are less intensive? what about purposes that are, in fact, quite laid back?

i don't know what it's called, but there's an unwritten rule that once you learn a new word or phrase, you'll see it or hear it at least two more times within the next 24 hours.

and now, i can't stop seeing it, hearing it, or reading it. it's everywhere.

for all intents and purposes. for all intents and purposes.
for all intents and purposes.

how did i miss this?

i just spent two months in japan. i brought home chopsticks, little japanese dolls, authentic hakata ramen and shells from the beach in okinawa. somehow, i missed this...