From the 'Michael-Jackson-Asylum-Search' file. The Independent ( 4/13 ) reports on The Boy Singers of Kabul that young boys whose voices haven't changed have become the pop star favorites in post-Taliban Afghanistan. 13-year-old Mirwais Najrabi is the biggest biggest star of all and fortunately has two older relatives to escort him everywhere. Other boys are not so lucky—various warlords tend to collect them as 'mistresses'. It is both disgraceful and honorable to the rest of Afghan society. Hmmm, something like here.
The NY Times magazine ( 4/10 ) highlights the tax problem of those few ( but significant ) married gay couples. While they may be married in Massachusetts, they are not legally married in the U.S. of A. How do they file? The moral conundrum of these couples is that one is required to sign the document swearing it's true. They are in the position of lying to one agency, telling the truth to the other.
The Chicago Tribune ( 4/5 ) has the obit of Alan Dundes, who as prof of anthropology at UC-Berkeley, applied Freudian analysis to, among other things, football. His article: 'Into the Endzone for a touchdown: A Psychoanalytic Consideration of American Football', enraged fans everywhere because he called the sport 'a ritualized form of homosexual rape.' He later took on Jesus as folklore and Auchwitz jokes. He, of course, received death threats.
Tsk, tsk, whatever is a man to do on a date with a man? Well, OK, but what if they're straight? Th NY Times tells about their anxieties in 'The Man Date' ( 4/10 ) . Guess what the major worry that comes up is. Yeah, that's it: 'What if someone thinks we're ... gay?'
Finally, we're sorry Princess Grace's husband Prince Rainier has died. And we're sorry the reclusive son of the couple is unmarried. And we're sorry all the press in Europe is so reticent about why he doesn't much care for women. And we're sorry The NY Times ( 4/10 ) doesn't state the obvious; it just calls him 'a nice boy.' Good luck, Prince Albert.