Surf city

My last job was at a city library. I like my current job, but I do miss the public sector on all those lovely little federal holidays like President's Day. Man, they had me earning my paycheck yesterday! One of my girls, who works as an executive assistant for a financial firm, says pink collar workers like me can get all those holidays off by working on Wall Street. Trouble is, you'd have to show up to work on the Street eventually, and I'm not interested in having to buy Tums by the drum at Costco.

Since I do not work on the Street, I have some computer time, and my eyeballs aren't all frizzled, and so I can catch up. Yes, I surfed. In a wetsuit and aqua shoes and lots of Redken Swim Creme to keep my hair from turning into green straw. (My hair is long, thick, and highlighted.) I watched the 500, as anyone can tell if they read the long post below this one. And I read some interesting stuff. People tell me my blogs are the start to a fun night of surfing because I'm so linky. Some even blame me for distracting them or call reading my blogs "a lifestyle choice." Gotta keep my reputation up. ;-) I'll start with the fun, and go to scary and not remotely funny.

House and Garden magazine is terribly upscale, but it contains good ideas that can be translated to real life (even at one percent of their budget!) and some surprisingly good writing. In the March issue, Mayer Rus, the "Testy Tastemaker," expounds on why innovative design is *not* needed in public restrooms. Funnier than you'd think, even before you get to the bit about the rehab center lav. Contains the scariest string of English words *ever*: "going to the bathroom can become an adventure that holds in store chance encounters with unexpected objects." From what my queer male friends in Orlando tell me, that's every bit as true about certain I-4 rest stops as it is about painfully trendy lavs.

Anyway, moving along...I'm sure y'all have read Dear Abby's classic response to a homophobic woman who wondered how she could "improve the neighborhood" after a gay couple moved in: "You could move." This week, Ask Amy was not quite as succinct, but she did make her point well enough. The one time my wife and I got a complaint about our "display" from a homophobic passerby, she grabbed me, took off my glasses, bent me so far back the ends of my hair touched the ground, and kissed me like she was going off to war. When she was done, the woman was still there, jaw dropped, along with a few other people. "Now *that* was a display!" I shouted. Alas, we have gotten no more complaints here in liberal NYC. :-)

Panda fans know that Tai Shan a/k/a Butterstick is a little panda prince. We even know to Obey Butterstick! But the owner of the Pandafans blog has found a suitable little princess for him, when they're old enough for that kind of thing--Jing Jing! Jing Jing's the little cuteness who sat on Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoeller's lap; she was also named for China's 2008 Olympics mascot. It is *blatantly* obvious when you are looking at a little girl panda, but good Gods, she is cute, especially in her *crib*!

Jonathan Rauch looks for the missing political middle, and talks about what has happened to the Democrats' "brand".

From Calgary via Harper's magazine--I forgot field trips could be this dangerous!

There are people trying to ban LGBT adoption in 16 states now. Goddamn it!!!! How mean, how cruel, how frustrating, how ANTI-FAMILY!!! But the people who answered the poll are overwhelmingly *for* adoption.

NYC-area lawmakers, including Senator Schumer, show that they actually care about fighting terrorism and keeping our city safe. On the other hand, Bush is refusing to back down. Keep talking, asshat. You're making your own people angry.

But what does any of that matter, if our oceans are dying? Mother Jones' new issue has a stark, fact-filled collection of articles about the dangers facing our oceans, the life it contains, and, ultimately, *us*. It's dry, it's depressing, it needs reading anyway.

Surf's up.