26 January 2007

One of my favorite webpages these days is Kenneth Hill's Gay & Lesbian page on AOL called "Worth Repeating." "Gay people say the darnedest things!" it exlaims at the top. Fabulous.

Anyway--I just checked it out and he has a link to the top fashion bloggers critiquing Madonna's on-stage attire through the years. It's a MUST SEE and read (and no, not just for my gay boyfriends.)

26 January 2007

The ONLY joy of being in the media during Hurricane Katrina is that I've made some friends. One of them is a guy named Morgan Stewart who works for Entergy--the big utility company down there.

He sends me emails every now and then and today's took the cake. It's an article written by one of his friends about what it was like to be a Saints fan at this past weekend's NFC championship game at Chicago.

The photo says it all.

I planned to root for Chicago against the Colts in the Super Bowl. (Chicago is one of my favorite cities...of course I rooted for the Saints to go all the way.) But I have to say--I hope Peyton (a NOLA native) and the boys WHOOOP the Bears' asses.

Here's the story:


Chicago Bears: Awful Winners

By Mike Bayham

DANTE’S INFERNO (CHICAGO)- The stands at Soldier Field Sunday afternoon would have been a paradise for Karl Marx as there was no evidence of class to be found anywhere in the stadium.

Going into the NFC championship game, I planned on being the subject of many, many barbs. And some of them were amusing, like one fan’s cry for some more “fumba-laya” in response to the Saints’ inability to hold on to the ball in the first half.

But it wasn’t long before things got “battery in the snowball” ugly, a reference to Bears fans’ treatment of Saints fans in the 1991 wild-card playoff.

Take for example one fan sporting a bear mask on his head and a placard strapped to his shoulders that read: “Bears finishing what Katrina started”.

Wanting to capture that scene so the folks back home can have an idea of what the traveling Black and Gold faithful had to endure, I turned my Saints cap around while sporting a grin and asked to take his picture. He giddily obliged though his smile disappeared when I repositioned my hat so the fleur-de-lis faced him after his public obnoxiousness was digitally cataloged.

That picture is posted at myspace (www.myspace.com/mbayham) and I encourage you to send it around. If we’re lucky (and he’s not) it might very well end up in the hands of his employer.

Things got even uglier upon finding my eBay acquired seat when a drunkard in front kept staring at me, hurling profanities and throwing his hands only inches from my face.

It’s been 16 years since I last threw a punch at anyone in self-defense and retaliation on my part would have meant a beat down by him, his cohorts and others wearing blue and orange clothing that don’t need much of an excuse to attack a visiting team’s fans.

So I summoned the strength of those other saints and just endured it, knowing that the first time he made contact I was going to start swinging away regardless of the consequences. Needless to say when Reggie Bush made his spectacular score, the cold war taking place in section 324, rows 15 and 16 began to teeter on going hot.

Shortly thereafter, the hothead asked if I got flooded out from Hurricane Katrina. Having been asked this question dozens of times on previous trips outside of New Orleans, I instinctively replied my house went under 11 feet of water but I had evacuated beforehand, to which this clown shot back, “too bad you didn’t drown.”

I along with many other Saints fans hit the exits at the start of the fourth quarter figuring that the beating on the field was enough without being assaulted in the stands. But the hostile hospitality did not end with the game.

As I trudged across the tundra towards the elevated train station I witnessed a Bears fan throwing his beer at a New Orleans television reporter. A day later while riding an escalator from the train area I was being cursed at by someone sporting a Bears cap going down in the opposite direction.

If this is how Bears fans handle victory, then I don’t doubt that myself and others who “dared” cheer for their team would have had left some blood on the Chicago snow.

Chicago is one of America’s great cities in architecture, food, music, theater and industry. It’s also an outstanding museum city, only nosed out by Washington, DC as the best in this area. However, there’s no excuse for people visiting the city for a sporting event to be sneered at or have the collective misfortune of their home area mocked.

The Bears fans have proven themselves to be the most repugnant sports fans this side of England’s soccer hooligans. ATL Dirty Birds and Philly’s arrogant Eagles fans have nothing on these animals.

I’ve visited Chicago four times now and would be happy to never set foot nor spend another red cent in it ever again.

What galls me the most is how the Chicago Bears and the media have been whining about Reggie Bush’s taunt.

Let’s see here: a professional athlete does a flip in the endzone after executing a spectacular play versus an unruly mob making fun of the catastrophe that killed over a thousand people and made homeless in excess of a quarter of a million.

I’ll be sure to light a candle for Brian Urlacher the next time I go to church.

Let’s hope that New Orleans-native Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts can settle the score for us in the big game in two weeks since the Chicago Bears don’t need another Super Bowl trophy as much as their fans need to get some class.

25 January 2007

Random thoughts:

* It's been a tough week for the girl...and the cat. The girl has been battling a serious stomach/intestinal bacterial infection for nearly a week now. She's been through hell and back, but I think she's finally starting to turn the corner. It's been an adventure.

* As for the cat...our wonderful vet (who thankfully makes home visits) gave her an exam earlier this week and said her "inappropriate elimination" issues were behavioral. (We knew that, but wanted to rule out any medical issues.) The doc prescribed her valium (an EXTREMELY small amount) and so far, so good. She's going where she's supposed to go, it's not a struggle to get her to actually SWALLOW the pill, and she generally seems a lot more content. I read online that until the cat is used to her "happy pills" her balance and coordination might be a little off. It's a point that I only remembered after the girl threw Ellie's crunchy toy down the stairs for her to run after last night--and Ellie "missed" the last three stairs. (Don't worry--she was fine.)

* As many of my readers know (Hi Mom!) I've been doing some looking around on the web for solutions to Ellie's "issues" and found some pretty strange websites. Well, I found another one: THIS website about cat spraying that inexplicably includes music to Andrew Lloyd Webber's "All I Ask Of You" from Phantom of the Opera. Yes, you too, can listen to this hauntingly beautiful song while reading about how you can prevent your cat from urinating all over your furniture.

* Meanwhile, can't BELIEVE Bush didn't once mention Hurricane Katrina or rebuilding New Orleans in his State of the Union speech. What a crock. And the folks in NOLA aren't taking it too kindly.

* Also--how about Dick Cheney going off on Wolf Blitzer about (GASP!) his gay daughter! What an ass. Here's the transcript.

BLITZER: You know, we’re out of time, but a couple of issues I want to raise with you: your daughter, Mary. She's pregnant. All of us are happy she’s going to have a baby. You’re going to have another grandchild. Some of the -- some critics are suggesting -- for example, a statement from someone representing Focus on the Family, "Mary Cheney's pregnancy raises the question of what's best for children. Just because it's possible to conceive a child outside of the relationship of a married mother and father doesn't mean that it's best for the child." Do you want to respond to that? 4
CHENEY: No

BLITZER: She's, obviously, a good daughter --

CHENEY: I'm delighted I'm about to have a sixth grandchild, Wolf.

And obviously I think the world of both my daughters and all of my grandchildren. And I think, frankly, you're out of line with that question.

BLITZER: I think all of us appreciate --

CHENEY: I think you're out of line.

BLITZER: We like your daughters. Believe me, I'm very sympathetic to Liz and to Mary. I like them both. That was a question that’s come up, and it’s a responsible, fair question.

CHENEY: I just fundamentally disagree with you.

BLITZER: I want to congratulate you on having another grandchild.