Thursday, June 08, 2023

Bobservations

Howsabout a few quickies … this morning I walked into the kitchen and Consuelo and Rosita were eating breakfast in the same room and at the same time for the first time. I smiled, looked at them  and said:

“Morning ladies.”

I smiled, looked at Carlos and said:

“Morning lady.”

He growled back.

Last week he had a translation at the Lancaster Detention Center, so off we went. When the attorney arrived he and Carlos were buzzed inside while I waited in the lobby, and because I live for the funny, I said:

“See you in ten to twenty.”

He growled back.

Lastly, one night this week, while he was practicing his trumpet and I was reading, Rosita, for the first time, crawled into my lap and fell asleep. Carlos finished his practice, walked into the living and saw Rosita asleep and said:

“She sleeps in your lap? She goes back tomorrow.”

Then he growled and went into the kitchen.

This week’s Tuxedo Repost is from February 13, 2010

“SNOWville, Day 2 =)

I know we didn't have SNOWmageddon or a SNOWpocalypse, but this is big news for Smallville, er, SNOWville, as we usually get a one-day dusting of snow each year. Of course, everything came to a standstill; schools and businesses closed before the snow even fell, but it sure makes the town, and our house, look pretty.

Tuxedo's first experience with snow and, well, I'm not sure he likes it.”

This is my favorite picture of Tuxedo—okay, one of my favorites—because of the look on his face.

I miss that punim.

Thing 45-appointed Judge Thomas Parker of the US District Court for the Western District of Tennessee has declared that state's anti-drag Adult Entertainment Act is unconstitutional, saying:

“If Tennessee wishes to exercise its police power in restricting speech it considers obscene, it must do so within the constraints and framework of the United States Constitution.”

Let the drag resume …

I know it’s a Photoshopped image, but nevertheless it begs the question: exactly when did Jon Bon Jovi become Bea Arthur?

Out there in Salt Lake City of all places, copies of the King James Bible are being removed from school library shelves at elementary and junior high facilities in Davis County after a complaint that the scriptures feature material inappropriate—such as murder, sex, and incest—for children.

While I am no fan of banning books, what’s good for the goose …

On the LGBTQ+ friendly front, consulting firm Deloitte will donate $1 million to The Trevor Project, a LGBTQ+ mental-health nonprofit that supports youth in the community in times of crisis.

The donation will be distributed over the next two years and will fund the Trevor Project’s crisis counseling services, a web-based chat and a text-supported phone line, among other resources, and comes at a time of increased anti-LGBTQ+ legislative actions as well as right-wing pushback against acts of support for the LGBTQ+ community by corporate America.

So, Deloitte gets a huge Heyyyyy.

Elon Musk recently said Twitter’s advertising business was on the upswing but, um, yeah, liar gonna lie. It seems Twitter’s US advertising revenue from April 1 to May 1 was $88 million, or 59%, from a year ago.

Oh, I feel so bad for Elon.

So, with Thing 45, Ron DeSaster and Joe Biden all running for president let’s take a look at the messages their wives have sent with their fashion.

The always illiterate Melanie …

Casey DeSaster, whom Twitter has taken to calling either #TackieO due to her love for capes and opera gloves, or, my favorite, #WalmartMelania.

Jill Biden, with the simplest, yet most profound message.

This is Parker Gregory, fashion model and fitness expert. So, once again we ask the question: Would You Hit It?

Wednesday, June 07, 2023

Architecture Wednesday: Tribeca Loft

This recently renovated 3,735 square foot, full-floor loft—currently the home of Today Show host Savannah Guthrie—features four bedrooms, three-and-a-half bathrooms, glass-walled dining room, chef’s kitchen and breakfast, a home office and ten-foot ceilings.

The elevator opens directly into the foyer which leads to a great room with 50 feet of linear frontage of south-facing windows, is ideal for entertaining as the room is divided into three separate areas, one with a custom marble and white oak bar; other features in the great room include a wall of custom oak millwork, concrete ceilings and a stunning steel and glass wall with doors that lead to a large formal dining room with an antiqued mirror and cerused oak backdrop.

Off the dining room is the chef’s kitchen with custom floor-to-ceiling cabinetry, a honed black Saint Laurent marble center island and a full suite of Gaggenau appliances including a wine refrigerator, a vented range hood and a casual dining area with additional cabinet storage.

The primary suite boasts a fireplace and massive, dressing room with more custom oak millwork and a wall of antiqued mirror closets; just beyond is a five-piece bathroom with Carrera marble and bluestone finishes, a deep soaking tub beneath a flatscreen television, separate shower, double vanity with storage. Off the primary suite is the home office with built-in desk and a Murphy bed behind custom millwork panels, giving this room the ability to also function as an additional guest bedroom. The second and third bedrooms share a Jack-and-Jill bathroom clad with a double vanity, while the fourth bedroom has an en suite bathroom of its own.

Other high-end upgrades and features include hand painted wall murals, Austrian white oak flooring, collectible light fixtures, and luxurious drapery throughout; there’s a proper laundry room with abundant extra storage, a high-tech AV system with in-wall and in-ceiling speakers and a private 62 square foot storage unit.

I shouldn’t quibble, because this is lovely and spacious and chic, but one one think that for 7 million, even in New York City, you could get a little outdoor space, btu there’s not even a wee Juliet balcony in the whole place.

Huh, I guess I can quibble.

Click to emBIGGERate …

Monday, June 05, 2023

This Bitch: JessicaTillmann

Down there in Florida, where insanity runs rampant and Hate is the law, Seminole County Public Schools is offering to reprint the 2023 Lyman High School yearbook in order to remove two pages of LGBTQ+ content because some parents, well, to be fair, one hate-filled parent, is upset about it.

Jessica Tillmannn, chapter chair of the Seminole County Moms for Liberty—meaning Liberty for her group of bigots and homophobes, but not for everyone—says she’s concerned about the definitions in the yearbook because she thinks they are teaching children about sex outside the state-approved standards that parents can choose to opt their children out of:

“They shouldn’t have any sexual definitions in a yearbook. This is a yearbook that goes to every student as young as 14.”

I got news for you Jessica, fourteen-year-olds know about LGBTQ+ people, and probably even have friends who are gay and bisexual and trans and genderfluid, so your homophobia is kind of ridiculous, misplaced and a little too late.

But what really has Jessica’s Spanx twisted? It’s the fact that the LGBTQ+ section in the yearbook includes photos of member of the student’s Gay-Straight Alliance, definitions of LGBTQ+ terms, a passage on the evolution of pronouns and a profile of a student who advocates for the LGBTQ+ community.

How terrifying.

And what kind of terms do they explain? How about genderfluid, defined as “a gender identity that changes with time and/or a given situation. This is opposed to a fixed gender identity.” The yearbook also defines aromantic as “someone who experiences little to no romantic attraction. Many aromantics still feel sexual attraction.”

Danielle Pomeranz, Lyman High School’s faculty yearbook adviser, disagrees with the district’s offer to scrub LGBTQ+ content since the book features all aspects of the school’s diverse student body, including Latinos in Action, Black History Month and even the Dungeons & Dragons Club and defended the LGBTQ+ section:

“They are definitions. They are not teaching anything about sex at all. … Nobody is teaching anybody about sex acts. It is ridiculous.”

And while the principal approved the yearbook’s content it is under scrutiny because the Florida Department of Education got involved when Jessica Tillmann had her Hissy Hate Fit and decided only her opinion counts; wrong, again, Jessica.

If fact, Jessica Tillmann is so thrilled it be a bigot and homophobe that she is also requesting that Danielle Pomeranz  and the school be fired. Sadly, Danielle Pomeranz resigned from her job a couple of weeks ago in part because of Florida’s political climate and a lack of support from Seminole County’s school leadership, so there’s one less teacher to care about all students in Florida.

Still, I have a suggestion for Jessica Tillmann: shut the fuck up. If you don’t like LGBTQ+ content in a  yearbook, get yourself a pair of scissors and cut the pages out of the book, but why believe your opinion should rule over all opinions?

On the upside, as of now, no one had requested a reprinted yearbook, not even Jessica Tillmann.

I guess she wanted her Fifteen Minutes of fame as a bigot and homophobe, and I hope she sits all alone in her hate rots there.

As for the LGBTQ+ community, we need to speak up, loudly, and condemn this kind of hate. Staying silent is not an option; use your voice, use your vote. What happens to one of us, happens to us all.

Orlando Sentinel