Category: Urban issues

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Wanna see my pot of gold?

Last week at the conference in Philadelphia, one of my advertisers stopped by our booth and asked me to come by to answer a question his coworkers had. Their company is based in a small city.

One said, “On the way to dinner last night, we noticed that some of the street signs are made with rainbow symbols on them. Why is that?”

I looked at them puzzledly. “Seriously?” I asked.

They stared at me. “Yeah,” one said.

“It’s, uh, it’s the gay district,” I said.

“THANK YOU!” one said. “I told you guys! It’s like they’ve never been to a big city before,” he added.

I said, “You’ve never seen that? Rainbow flags? Storefronts with pretty colors? Guys who are much better looking than any guy you’ve ever met?”

“Seriously?” another asked. “Why do you know that?”

“Because . . . I’m aware of cultural symbols and I have lots of queer friends . . .?”

Walking back to my booth shaking my head, I muttered, “What did they think, it was the leprechaun district?”

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What it is: 3/17/08

What I’m reading: During the weekend, I finished Love & Sleep, Osamu Tezuka’s Buddha comic and Darwyn Cooke’s The New Frontier. I’m continuing to work on Retired Racing Greyhounds for Dummies. I have 6 weeks until the third volume of AEgypt gets reissued, but this week’ll get spent pounding out the April issue and designing an advertiser’s supplement, so I doubt there’ll be much book-reading going on.

What I’m listening to: Dummy, by Portishead

What I’m watching: 2nd season of The Wire (two episodes remaining), No Country for Old Men, and Super Bowl XLII Champions: NY Giants DVD

What I’m drinking: Tim Horton’s coarse grind (French press style), a gift from my pals in Providence

Where I’m going: nowhere this week

What I’m happy about: Rufus is doing much better on the stairs.

What I’m sad about: Closing the crate door on the poor guy when I go to work in the morning, even though lots of people — including veterinarians and greyhound owners — told me not to get upset about doing it.

What I’m pondering: Whether I should get a microchip implanted that will give me an electric shock anytime I go more than 3 days without writing back to e-mails from friends or family. I feel like a heel lately.

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Eliot P. Ness

Last week, I mentioned NY Gov. Spitzer’s creative use of campaign funds in a post about why I hate writing about politics. This afternoon, Spitzer got nailed in a federal investigation of a high-class prostitution ring (with lead reporting again by St. John’s College alum Danny Hakim!).

I consider prostitution a victimless crime, unless the John is ugly or fat or something. In fact, I’m only writing about this so I can write a post with the title of Howard Stern’s great character from The Gay Untouchables.