Phone makers and celebrities may not always be a perfect match. Some celebrities who have endorsed brands like BlackBerry and Samsung have been caught using iPhones. … Read More
Jason Collins: Out of the NBA?
Yesterday, NBA journeyman Jason Collins became the first active American athlete in a major team sport to come out. There have been gay athletes before, whether active in individual sports, like Martina Navratilova; or retired from their league, like basketball player John Amaechi. But at the risk of reducing one man’s major life-decision to a sociology experiment, Collins is the test case everyone has been waiting for.With his self-penned Sports Illustrated cover story, Collins forces a discussion about all the hypotheticals that have been bandied about for the last few years: How will players deal with a gay teammate in the locker room? How will fans feel about rooting for him? Will the insertion of an out athlete into the American sports mainstream change the discourse around gay rights in this country?Luckily, Collins, in a sense, is the ideal candidate. And the NBA is the perfect choice for the first league to enter into this uncharted territory.Continue Reading… … Read More
Er…What Happened To The North Korean Crisis?
It seems to me that there are certain similarities between Comrade Jong-un and Comrade Obama. … Read More
French vineyard to turn carbon dioxide emissions into toothpaste
As vineyards around the world face the threat of increasing greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, one vineyard in France has planned to do its part to reduce its carbon footprint. The business plan makes perfect sense and is one that should be financially and environmentally sustainable….
Documentary explores pervy performance art of eco-sex activists
“Blood and sperm. The perfect mix,” says a tattooed hippy, as he licks both off his hands, having just had sex with a woman in front of a small audience in a Berlin basement. “Life-giving fluids we are all so afraid of. We’re so afraid of ourselves! It’s all…
“How to Create the Perfect Wife”
“The Dying Negro” — the first major anti-slavery poem in English — was the talk of London in the summer of 1773. Although the bestselling pamphlet was published anonymously, a wealthy young political progressive named Thomas Day let it be known that he was the author. Over the next decade and a half, Day would become a familiar and fiery public voice on behalf of abolition and the independence of the American colonies, as well as an early campaigner against cruelty toward animals. He would also write a hugely popular children’s novel, “The History of Sandford and Merton.” But, as Wendy Moore observes in her transfixing new book on Day, in the year “The Dying Negro” was published, few readers “would have suspected that its chief author secretly maintained a teenage girl who was completely subordinate to his commands and whims.”The title of Moore’s book, “How to Create the Perfect Wife,” explains what Day was up to. From an early age — sniffing at the revelry in that 18th-century party school, Oxford — Day knew exactly how he intended to live. He planned to commit himself to “the unremitting practice of the severest virtue.” He would adopt an austere existence in the country, thinking, reading, writing and doing good works, while receiving few visitors. The one thing he required to achieve this nirvana was a mate, and for that, too, he had something very particular in mind.Continue Reading… … Read More
I swallow my fear
Like scores of other Americans, I suffer from panic attacks, or as my insurance forms call it, Generalized Anxiety Disorder. I call it “the Panics,” since that gives it a zippy, old-fashioned flavor. I can’t pinpoint an exact cause, but it could be related to the fact that I’m Jewish, so I have a genetic propensity for ajeda, or that I’m a World Trade Center survivor, or that I grew up with a mentally ill and physically abusive brother. All of which add up to a perfect storm of anxieties, if I do modestly say so myself.What may be unusual about my anxiety is that I don’t fear people. I thrive on their company, and I’m more at home outside of my apartment, which is probably one of the reasons I love my job so much. I largely make my living as a professional sideshow performer, wherein I eat fire, swallow swords and escape from straitjackets for paying audiences. Oddly, I find the life-threatening aspect of my performance calming and joyous. Somehow, being a daredevil on occasion helps me feel more normal.Continue Reading… … Read More
