sundries

[rm]

Homeless man needs help finding his stolen cat.

Transatlantic taxi swap. When I was a kid my father insisted on checker cabs only, because they had more room, and my mother and I weren't allowed to sit in the jump seats because we were ladies.

Same-sex valentine's day cards debut in India. Includes card designs targeted at both gay men and lesbians as well as a gender-neutral card design.

yuki_onna is back with some thoughts about the messages of most Superbowl ads. The piece gets into some interesting stuff about how so much of heteronormative society seems to be about convincing men and women to hate each other and yet then freaks out when people turn to their homosocial groups for sex and interpersonal connection.

A decorated pilot in the Canadian military has been charged with the murders of two women and the assault of two more with further charges expected.

ebonypearl writes about dealing with food fraud in response to a Newsweek article. Also, check out the comments. It seems the dude who was selling regular bread as gluten-free has been arrested on felony charges.

Mumps on the march.

Controversy over seven-year-old samba queen.

Creative philanthropy, $100 at a time.

ellen_kushner answers some questions about "The Man with the Knives."

Last night was Buffy-free as Patty wasn't feeling well. Hopefully she will be full recovered today and that whatever it was was non-contagious, because NOT FUN, most especially for her.

Apparently the snow IS coming for NYC this time. Well, at least it'll make Cold Spring pretty this weekend or something.

A guy who used to shoot art nudes of me saw the suit photo and said "you look like a London banker." Yes. Thank you.

Comments

[delchi.livejournal.com]

Forever ago ( sometime in the early 80's ) my parents converted the family business into a gift shop. My mother went nuts getting "sample packs" of everything in the known universe. One of these sample packs was from a greeting card company that included gay/lesbian greeting cards in the sample pack. They were amazingly generic ... the one that I saw was " hip hip hooray - I'm glad you're gay! " with generic artwork.

Remember the gender neutral grade school v-day card sets? " BE MINE!! ". Scary part of grade school was being forced to give them out - even to people you didn't like. The construction paper mailbox that was taped to the desk to collect them all. Scary scary stuff. It squicked me to have to participate.

[orlacarey.livejournal.com]

Scary part of grade school was being forced to give them out - even to people you didn't like. The construction paper mailbox that was taped to the desk to collect them all.

But the sad side is that by not giving them to everyone you end up with that kid who gets none because he/she's unpopular.

[delchi.livejournal.com]

Agreed, but I had no problem with being that kid. I'd rather not participate in it at all, but I as not offered that choice.

[gement.livejournal.com]

My school (probably because we had known Jehovah's Witnesses in the community) allowed reciprocal opting out. Don't give any, don't get any, do a different craft while everyone's making boxes. I'm sorry to hear yours was not so accommodating.

[delle.livejournal.com]

I'm having a hard time with the 7 yr old samba queen .... I dance samba in a local community group. Samba is VERY sensual/sexual. She's a child and she's a great dancer for her age, her parents are very involved, very aware... and yet, as a parent and as a (sorta/wannabe) samba dancer I think I would draw the line at letting my child be a samba queen for Carnivale at age seven.

(also, at the end of the piece, the reporter mentions the child is dancing at the samba club at 3am. perhaps that's acceptable in Brazil? I dunno. I wouldn't have let my 7 yr old daughter stay up that late to dance for/in front of 6,000 strangers. But that's me)

She's an amazing samba dancer for her age.

[gement.livejournal.com]

Performing families can keep odd hours, and when you're being recognized as national-level quality I can easily see wanting to ride that wave for a few weeks, even at the cost of some late nights.

For the rest, the fact that it's being taken to court lets me shrug off some of my usual cultural relativism reservations and say, "Yes, she's very talented, and yes, that outfit still smacks of the Ramsey-style baby beauty queen."

I hope the girl in question has fun with the dancing, though! I can't even fathom the adrenaline rush of being the center of attention at Carnivale for something I was really talented at.

[drfardook.livejournal.com]

Cold Spring should be spectacular this weekend. The Hudson is still half frozen down to Peekskill so you'll get a layer of snow on top of the ice floating in the river. The NOAA said 6+ inches tonight and I don't think it will go anywhere.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I haven't been in ages and Patty's never been and we're staying that this ridiculous little B&B and I'm totally excited.

[dremiel.livejournal.com]

Yes, the minute we fly home from NYC you have snow back in the forecast. We should rent ourselves out for weather control!

[orlacarey.livejournal.com]

I agree with delle - wondering about the parents who have their child dance at 3 am. I don't really know anything about the samba. But if a 7 year old got chosen as a Queen I'm thinking it was because someone was looking for a child to fill that role.

[fabricdragon.livejournal.com]

mumps.. shudder... no fun at all, especially if you are an adult.

i will have to go see teh video of the samba queen when i am able to go to hubby's computer, mine wont deal with video.
shrug, yes 7 is very young... but if you have the talent, go for it... samba is a dance. i knew a girl who tangoes with her brother.... people kept getting wierded out because they did so well with the whole thing .. everyone was all "but. he is your brother!"

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

From my perspective, heteronormative society doesn't freak out when people turn to homosocial groups for interpersonal connection. It *only* freaks out about the sex. It's a little more complicated than that, of course, esp. around gender roles (and of course heteronormative society freaks out about those, too) and the definition of sex, but for the most part, basically if you're not touching (and even if you are, if you're female), it's all good.

But yes, it's deeply weird and conflicted.

[ladypeculiar.livejournal.com]

A guy who used to shoot art nudes of me saw the suit photo and said "you look like a London banker." Yes. Thank you.

Dude. Dude? Can we talk about the weird? Oy.

[guruwench.livejournal.com]

Forgive me for commenting on just the one link, but it's something that's closer to home than the rest at the moment. I live in Ottawa, just a short drive up the highway from CFB Trenton, and the news about the Colonel is going to hit hard in this area generally. My sweetie works for a military support organization (as a civilian), so matters military are things we pay more attention to than we would have before he started work there.

I'm hoping that, if this man is guilty, he is punished appropriately; it's definitely going to be a long investigation, since one thing I heard on the news (and is mentioned in the article you link to above) is that unsolved cases in the areas where he has been posted in the past will be looked at to see if further charges might be warranted. It's also hard to remember that he is innocent until proven guilty, since charges such as this tend to stick to those accused.

This will be a difficult time for all involved, and I wish the investigators (both military and civilian) strength and wisdom to do their jobs fairly and well.

[aviv-b.livejournal.com]

Re: Homeless man and cat. We had something similar happen last year. Someone took a dog that belonged to a homeless man because she though they couldn't take care of him.

The Chicago Anti-Cruelty Society offered a small reward for the return with no questions asked - and the dog was returned a couple of days later by a very embarrassed woman. And to make things even nicer, the dog needed some treatment (dental work I think) and they did the work for free.

Maybe the local Humane Society could step up and do the same for this man to help him get his cat back. (Because the taker, might be too embarrassed or afraid to come face to face with the homeless guy).

Please update us if he gets his cat back.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Stealing a guy's cat... suck.

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

Reading the comments over on the story about the homeless man and his cat really depressed me, so many people saying it was cruel to the cat to live that way (but not the man, presumably), and he should head off back to his brother in OK (with no thought to the fact they maybe can't stand each other) and he shouldnt have bought a cat in the first place and saved all his money for a rainy day, (as of course we all do at all times, which is why nobody has fancy cars, widescreen tvs or the like when still in full employment). Ugh.

[demotu.livejournal.com]

That murder case is horrifying, and yet I'm also very interested in seeing how it unfolds, since there's absolutely no informaiton as to why he's a suspect at this point. And, oh, this the residence he shares with his wife in the upscale Ottawa neighbourhood of Westboro?

Yeah, that's my neighborhood.* He lives a ten minute walk away from me.

[guruwench.livejournal.com]

Ouch - I used to live in Westboro, but moved 4 years ago.

[demotu.livejournal.com]

Not the kind of news we usually get here, huh?

I walk past his street every day, usually after dark. I feel a little sick about it, TBH.

[feyandstrange.livejournal.com]

I am still terribly sad that the Black Cab folks had to stop importing and selling London Black Cabs to the US - I was going to buy one in a few years when I could afford to keep and park it. Not only for nostalgia value, but because the damn things COME WITH A RAMP and turn on a dime - perfect city vehicle for a chair user. I am hoping they'll start importing again when the economy picks up. There are still a few of them in our local cab fleets.

I hope the guy gets his cat back. We have some quasi-homeless (live in SROs or shelters or their van) who actually do cat rescue. Anybody who says the homeless shouldn't have pets doesn't understand why someone would rather suffer to keep their pet than turn it into a kill shelter, or go homeless because the shelters won't take pets.

[iamradar.livejournal.com]

THE CAT GOT RETURNED!!! YAY!!!!

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/09/BAAJ1BV43M.DTL