Types of homosexuals (available in 1958)

Tag yourself!

the NIHG book club for February

what should we read this month?

Seems apporpriate....

...considering this infernal heat.

(#I'llseemyselfoutthanks)
 

"Book Club" or "On checking Grindr in the convent bathroom"

A few months ago, at a repast, a friend of my ex's talked me into her little book club.
She's a social sort, a genteel southern lady.

The books sounded interesting, and I'm always seeking to meet new people, trying to be less of a homebody.
Can't say I don't try.
And she does know a lot of people.

Oh, and there was that time or two she'd shown up with one of her friends, you know, the young gentleman below.

 I mean, I might have remembered that too, I'm not sure.

Alas, nothing like that showed up at the convent for the book club.
Nope.
Not at all.

Just a gathering of older, erudite ladies....and me.
We met at a convent.
Because, of course we did. Where else would we meet?

After a bit of conversation and snacks, the ladies and I dispersed.

Before leaving, I availed myself of the bathroom, washed my hands and absent mindedly checked Grindr before leaving.
I mean it can't hurt to check, right?
Nada.
(for which I was both disappointed and relieved)
 

This month's NIHG Book Club selections

Which would be most helpful to your life?

Book Club Meeting

Which should be this month's selection? 

"...laced with touch of the South"

The other day while browsing our local Dollar Tree, I happened upon this sight....just to the right of the rubbing alcohol and left of the plastic hand grenades

What do I see? Why It's a book by  none other than

"New York Times Bestselling Author" Wynonna Judd
(Yes, you did read that right.)

Opening it, I was assailed by her menacing author's photo.  She dares me to put it back, so I don't.  

I let the pages fall open to read this line of fine literature:    "'Hello, Destiny Hart,' he said in a whiskey -smooth voice laced with a touch of the South."

I mean now really, poor old Harper Lee can clearly forget about her little "comeback" now, right?  Here is Southern Literature at its finest right here.

"Simply Elegant"

Today, while wandering aimlessly in the library on a lovely afternoon, I came across a little tome that hadn't been checked out since Nixon was in the White House.

"Simply Elegant" by one "Pearl Gordon" How could I not be sucked in by such a seductive cover?

And of course  a busy career woman bachelor, the Milwaukee Sentinel's review caught my eye.

 Pearl's timely reminder: "Times have changed, and we no longer have maids or just the housewife cooking."
You got that right, Pearl.

 

Flipping the pages, I happened upon Pearl's elegant recipe for Gefilte Fish and Tuna Fish Salad

And, if that's not elegant enough for you, here's Pearl's recipe for Lobster Thermidor ("Thermidor" is French for "Single Career Gal" in case you didn't know)

The forward written from the Kansas First Lady Mrs. Robert B. Docking, a close personal friend of Pearl's
(not to name drop or anything)

And if this here ain't elegant enough for you, I don't know what is, baby.

Book Club Meeting

I need a new hobby, but it's so hard to pick.

 

For those days when you need it:

Step 1

Step 2

(From Barbie's Mermaid, Fairy and Kitten Giant Coloring Book
  {via Biglots})

Naked Centennial

Today is the 100th birthday of William S. Burroughs

I'm reminded of this fact, by the always fascinating site Band of Thebes, who give an overview of his queer-ness (is that a word?)

I've only read one of his books, I'm ashamed to say, the late The Western Lands, and didn't much take to it, and try as I might, I've never been able to get through Naked Lunch. 

 Maybe one day.

(but I doubt it)

Seems back in the late 40's he and his wife Joan (you know, the one he shot in the forehead playing "William Tell") moved to Algiers.  

Just a bit of time on the Westbank can do that to a person. Neal Cassady and Kerouac visited him here, so it seems. 

Anywho... on a lark, a few weeks ago I made something of a pilgrimage.  I drove down through the hood and out again....to find his former home. I'd long meant to, but never had gotten around to it, even as near as it is.

It's in a quiet, very off-the-beaten-path neighborhood in the suburbs, only a short distance from where I grew up, in fact. 

Gabor-o-rama

A few days ago, I got a call from a stern robot librarian about a book that was "overdue."
 Oops.
It took me a while to realize which, but I finally figured it out.
 





















 Like so many men before, I'd fallen under the siren spell of the Gabors.

I know the librarians are silently judging me.
Even the robot ones.
I mean, I know I would be.
But whatever.

This tome is  750 odd pages, a goulash of gossip and trash.   Too much for me to digest in fact.
I had to return it before I even got to page 300.
I was getting heartburn.
Besides, that 90 cent fine wasn't going to pay itself.

But that's why I'm here, to save you all the time and trouble of having to sift through the boring parts. Let me get straight to the point:

Penis.

Penis is always the point of anything, right?

 It seems much of the 750 pages of this tome is about penis.
 (But, surprisingly, not Zsa Zsa's.)

Anyway, here, for your delectation, are some random quotes:

"At a luncheon in London, G. B. Shaw made outrageous claims to Zsa Zsa about his first meeting with a future queen he defined as a 'little harpie and an annoying vixen'".

"'Even though I didn't have to, I was naked under the blanket,' Stewart Granger later said.  'It made me more authentic in the role, and it gave the gay men on the crew a thrill when I stripped down. So why not?'"  

"Although the decadent (King) Farouk was said to have the 'tiniest penis' in Egypt' Zsa Zsa always maintained that he raped her..."

"Earlier in that day, Rubi, learning for the first time that Lance had homosexual tendencies, called him aside. He whispered to his stepson to be, 'Go ahead, feel it. Forget about that small dick of Cary Grant. I've got one that stretches to the moon.'" 

"The stars and hookers George Raft bedded....referred to his penis as 'Black Snake'"

Aboard a flight to Paris "...Zsa Zsa sat next to a young woman 'with kinky hair and bad skin'": Jacqueline Kennedy."

"To borrow a line from Frank Sinatra, Zsa Zsa's former rapist, she did it Her Way..."