TWENTY MILLION FOLLOWERS!!!!!!

Read somewhere that a woman who publishes this wedding blog has 20 million followers.  I'm trying to get to 100.  Cannot fathom how that happens.  Or how you can fit all the names into that little "TO" box.  Anyhow I have a secret but special reward for the first one of you who sends me 5 email addresses of folks who actually might enjoy this screed. Kind of like a contest.  I cannot be categorized but I can hopefully be interesting.

So I loved the speech at the Inauguration.  Now I know nothing may come of it but the language and the message was terrific.  "Seneca Falls and Selma and Stonewall".  First of all, it is beautifully alliterative which is amazing.  Second, in a few short words he made history acknowledging women, African Americans, and, for the first time ever, Gay men and women.  Even if nothing else happens, he "came out" on these issues and on immigration.  The line "do not confuse absolutism with principles"--another terrific use of language and a slap at the Tea Partiers without naming them and thus egging them on.  Speaking of slaps, Ryan and Romney must still have red faces from the slaps they got.  And that fool Romney is probably still at the Convention Center counting his firecrackers--what a baby not showing for the Inaugural.

OK, so you live in Bethel, Maine and are likely the only Hispanic gay man within a bazillion miles.  On the other hand, you happen to be a poet and you get a call sometime after the election and are asked to write a poem for the Inauguration--hello!!  I would have headed straight to bed--no, first to the liquor cabinet for the Scotch, then the freezer for the ice, and then bed--but this guy Blanco came up with a beauty under gigantic pressure.  The symbolism of his remarks means something to the Immigrants who came before and the ones that will come again.  And it blasted away at the homophobes already freaked out by the Stonewall reference.

On a somewhat lighter note, my old hometown (that would be Brookline--though I have a few others) is being overrun by wild turkeys.  Front page of the Globe had pix of these critters and all sorts of crazed residents who "cannot leave their houses"; a mailman who had to enter someones home to escape attack (there is a joke there, right?); and children afraid of going to school.  The next time there is an absence of an animal story on either the front page of the Globe or the front page of the Metro section of the paper, please notify me immediately.  One day last week we learned about insects.

So I am in a fairly legit kind of men's room--not a sleazoid place on the side of a highway.  If some of you are not aware of this, there are now urinals for little guys about half the size of the ones for us manly guys.  So two urinals down, there is a grown up manly guy using the kid's urinal and reading the paper.  He is also peeing all over his shoe because it is a longer shot--does not notice a thing.  Flushes and of course walks out without washing his hands--does leave a good size puddle.  Un fucking believable.

Before the Israeli election, David Remnick had a New Yorker article about the rise of the secular (as opposed to the religious) right and how rigid they are about the Palestinians.  It was very depressing.  Surprise--they got crunched in the election and the center of the populace--in other words, those who might actually favor a two state solution--came out big.  I like Remnick a lot but he really blew it this time.  Then recently Jon Lee Anderson (another writer in the mag who I like a lot) wrote a great piece about Hugo Chavez who is likely dying in Havana.  What he is likely to leave behind in Venezuela will not be pretty.  Two days later, a prison riot killed a bunch of guards and inmates in that country.

Scotty will not run so I am not sure which Republican will go after Kerry's seat.  I hate to admit it but Weld would be better than most.  Also would fit in better what with his WASPY noblesse oblige style. Yuk however to the need for another two elections--a special one this summer and then the regular one.

You all do know there is a website called "Christian Mingle", right?

SPORTS TALK
Don't believe ARod and don't believe Teo and believe Ray Lewis is a thug who should have been in jail 10 years ago.  And I don't believe him either.  I do believe someone on the Pats coaching staff should be kicked someplace for how they managed to get ZERO points in the second half.  Sure, Brady stunk and there were injuries but no points--pathetic.  Greg Bedard, in the Globe, has been great all season writing about the Pats.  His analysis of this game was excellent.  I will not be watching the super bowl at all.  Going out to din din and watching Downton.

Phil Mickelson has the shit eatingest grin of anyone on the face of the earth.  and he is upset because his taxes are so high he could not buy into the Padres.  Kick him to the curb or at least into a sand trap.

Don't forget the contest.

Sayonara.