You have seen the New Yorker ( 1/22 ) cartoon of the Boy Scout showing his merit badges to another boy. "And this one's for homophobia."
Roger Ebert reviews the Japanese movie Taboo in the Chicago Sun- Times ( 1/19 ) and captures clearly the tradition of homosexuality among samurai warriors. According to the book Comrade Loves of the Samurai, it was actually a custom somewhat akin to the ancient Greeks.
From the "I-Don't-Understand-It-But-It's-OK-With-Me" department. From the New York Times ( 1/14 ) a full-page spread: the single word "Dior" and a nude photo of the upper half of a beautiful young man.
For those readers of LogCabingian sympathies, in case they didn't know, Molly Ivins' book Shrub ( the short but happy political life of George W. Bush ) makes Dubya's opinion of lesbigays perfectly clear: " ... Bush's policy on gays and lesbians is straightforward: he's against them." This book, which goes immediately for the jugular, indicates G.B.II would be an immediate candidate for an independent counsel investigation if there were still one around. ( Where's Ken Starr when he could do something useful? ) What deed did Dubya do? Well, insider trading for one. This book is well-researched and viciously funny to the point of nearly having a car accident on the outer drive as it was read to me.
I missed this one in October ( the cat hid the paper under the sofa ) -;The New York Times look at Losing Matt Shepard by Beth Loffreda. The book, an overview by a straight but sophisticated author of the world's response to this infamous incident seems to be a fairly complete account of the murder.
The New York Times ( 1/19 ) had a nicely nasty review of the utterly inadequate lesbian segment of Showtime's A Girl Thing. Julie Salamon, the reviewer, listed all the little problems in the production: too much blondness, too much rescuing by wise, older men, too much denigration of gay sexual feeling. Actress Elle Macpherson's performance is described thusly: " ... resembles those perfect, shiny apples at many fruit markets: looks great, no juice."
This week's Reader ( 1/19 ) has an article by Albert Williams that may start a spate of scholarship. Called "Dennis, Anyone?", it tells of Evanston-born author Patrick Dennis. The author and the alter ego of Auntie Mame wrote some of the funniest books of the century. Little Me, still my favorite comic novel, is one of the few books of his still in print. Dennis, whose books had high camp and gay content, was himself a tortured, talented, semi-closeted man who late in his short life ( he died at 55 ) became a butler for job security. Albert's article kindly provides a complete list of Dennis' books.
The January issue of Discover Magazine has an article on why people adopt children. ( There is the issue that adopted children do not often continue the genetic line of the parents. ) The magazine hired a fashion photographer to film examples of adoptive parents and children. In the magazine's intro, she praised one couple as "saints" who had adopted four children born to drug-addicted mothers. The children were extremely well-behaved and loving, and as their portrait reveals, they now have two dads. ( Incidentally the article concludes that the reasons people make good adoptive parents are exactly the same reasons that make any person a good human being. )
