Another Post Not About Flaneuring

Some thoughts from today:

• Know what makes me teary eyed?
  

(Prepare yourself. The complete and utterly hopeless nerdy-ness that made my high school experience the fun-time equivalent to medieval surgery is about to be exposed.)

Cher.

F***in’ Cher, y’all.
“Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves?” “Halfbreed?” Oh. My. Gosh. I get weepy. It’s such deceivingly happy music about prostitution and racism. “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves” pops up on my iPod or iTunes as I’m working and I start humming along innocently every single time and then BAM! Our Gypsy’s a prostitute. Tears.



(Her hair is amazing though. You love it. You know you do. I envy it.)

• Best quote today: “I swear to God, Salvador Dali, if you fall on me in the middle of the night, I’m going to freak out!”

(To the best of my knowledge, Salvador Dali is not spending time hanging from my ceiling. However, a print of his artwork is precariously dangling on the wall above my bed.)

• Mr. B is here.
  

He sits behind me as I write these words – sweet, wonderful Mr. B – here in my flat in London. Is this a dream? A movie? It can’t be real, can it? I’ll wake up soon enough. But for now, I can turn from my desk, reach out to the form lazed on my bed, give his foot a squeeze and linger another moment in the green garden of this hazy, unexpected bliss.

Golden Girls Interlude

(The Girls.)

Sophia, on Dorothy's date night etiquette: "Remember, you're a Lady. Keep both feet on the floor."

Dorothy: "Fine, Ma. Blanche, what should I wear?"

Blanche: "If you keep both feet on the floor, you better wear something that you can pull off over your head."

Equal Pay Day

April 20th is Equal Pay Day in my homeland, and this little post is a reminder to contact your senators -- easy to do through the National Women's Law Center -- to make sure women receive equal pay for equal work. Can you believe it's 2010 and we're still having this discussion?

"American women who work full-time, year-round are paid only 77 cents for every dollar paid to their male counterparts. This gap in earnings translates into $10,622 less per year in female median earnings, leaving women and their families shortchanged. The wage gap is even more substantial when race and gender are considered together, with African-American women making only 61 cents, and Latinas only 52 cents, for every dollar earned by white, non-Hispanic men."

- Quote via Shakesville.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

(Truth.)

Good: Constance McMillen, the brave soul who stood up to her bigoted school system and requested to take her girlfriend to prom, was finally allowed to do just that. With the help of the ACLU, the school is being sued and Constance has been given a scholarship and an intern job offer in NYC.

Bad: The prom turned out to be a decoy. Only 7 students attended, while the rest of her class went to a privately sponsored prom that school officials knew about.

Ugly: Everything about this is pretty ugly.

Commenters across the Internet who support Constance are screen-grabbing her classmates Facebook pages to humiliate and mock them.

Do they deserve it? Yes, since they played an active part in oppressing their classmate, and stripping her of her privacy and freedom. Constance will be a shining light in the gay rights movement, and will have opportunities her peers can barely dream of.

But. These are some pretty dumb, hypocritical kids. (Example: One of the screen-grabs featured Constance's classmate's Facebook page that she did not bother to make private. Listed as the favorite activities on this classmate's page? Jesus and pimpin'. I think I lost brain cells just writing that.) These dumb kids may grow-up, leave their parents sheltered, bigoted ways, and realize how terrible they were to Constance. They may realize the difference between right and wrong, and look deeper into their own souls to discover that Jesus would neither discriminate nor pimp. They may go to college and discover their own hidden feelings for the same sex. They may continue to be the finest display of stupidity and the butt of Mississippi jokes the world has to offer. They denied Constance rights. Should their own rights be denied?

Do two wrongs make a right? Moral and ethical dilemma.

(Photo taken in Plaza-Midwood, Charlotte, N.C., 2009)

Good: The air smells like Spring, the weather is in the mid-teens Celsius (High 50s, low 60s for my Fahrenheit peeps), and I just got all giddy and squeal-y when my flatmate said she saw Princess Eugenie jogging this afternoon in the park down the street from where we live.

Bad: London has decided to shun all originality and stick what its good at: Rain. The forecast for London and the continent call for rain next week. Perfect for my traveling plans. Ah, weather.

Ugly: In my hometown of Charlotte, N.C., there is something of a heatwave happening. Even NYC is feeling the heat -- the handy-dandy Internet tells me that it's 82 degrees there. (28 °C, my European comrades!) In Charlotte? The trusty Internet says a high of 94 is expected today. All this is well and good, but my Vitamin D deprived skin feels wretched jealous as FB status updates from Eastcoast friends continue to be, "It's SO hot!"

(Sleeping puppies courtesy of the Internet. Shameless ploy for readers via Google searches including the phrase "sleeping puppies." And, because, you know, puppies!!!)

Good: Your Princess of Procrastination woke up early, at 9:30 in the morning...

Bad: ...and proceeded to fall back asleep come the afternoon, getting nothing done, which led to...

Ugly: ...waking up with a headache. Boo.

Bonus Good:
Natty, writing on Gmail to Mr. B: "I feel headache-y"
Mr. B, hopping on Gchat: "Headache, headache, go away! Come again on Tom DeLay!"

Flaneur-ing?

How about some flaneur-ing for your Monday?

Fishing lures, seen in a window by South Kensington Station, April 3, 2010.
(I would be a very dead fish, because these little guys were so attractive.)

Inside South Kensington Station, looking out.

The massive crowds on Putney Bridge,
seen from the second level of a double-decker bus,
after the Cambridge v. Oxford rowing race.
(Cambridge won this year!)

Perspective

March 28 issue of The Sunday Times, London, featuring Roman Polanski.

You're right.
Not many directors can tell you what it is like to be shot at.
But you know what?
Many, many, many women can tell you what it is like to be raped.
And they are not getting front page covers of The Times.


UPDATE: Cross-posted at Shakesville, which you really should be reading.