The Sock Threat

Haley and Nombly both have certain toys that they will take up in their mouths, and run around with, howling, as though they just killed it. And then they usually end by bringing it to me, especially Haley.

For Nombly it has to be a toy made of real fur, like a little fluff ball. (Yes, I am non vegan with my cats.)

But the first time I saw Haley do it, I thought she just had a passion for oatmeal--because she kept getting up to where the little oatmeal breakfast packets were, and then she'd run through the house and drop it in the room I was in.

Then it became mini Kleenex bags.

Then I bought some fuzzy toy that was just the right consistency--she hunts that a lot. I'll have to get a new one, the stuffing's coming out.

But she has a new prey. A pair of socks that Fernando had wrapped up in a red bag, and tied closed. It was on a shelf in the living room, and one day I saw her trying to carry it away, but it's so big she kept getting stuck. So I threw it on the floor, and she proceeded to stalk and hunt it for ten minutes. And now sometimes when I'm sitting in my bedroom writing, I hear her Wild Meow and next thing I know she's depositing the red sock bag in my room.

Good thing she's here to kill these menacing socks.

And that's the news for Jacques Cartier riding - yo

I only just looked up the election results for my riding today. I didn't vote in this provincial election--I'm not listed for this residence, and my energy to go out and get registered when I'm voting Liberal in a Liberal riding, well it was null. Coming so close on a federal election, and a 2007 provincial, voter turnout was the lowest since the 1920s.

Here's my riding:

1939-1985 inclusive - LIB

1989 - Equality Party

Since 1994 - LIB

1995 sovereignty referendum: No - 91.02 per cent; Yes - 8.98 per cent

Language breakdown: English: 55.3 per cent French: 27 per cent Other: 17.6 per cent (3.80 per cent Italian)

The Liberals (in my riding) got 80%, higher than last time.
The Greens actually beat the PQ with 7.5 ...kinda funny.
The lowest result was the Marxist-Leninist party--they got 87 votes (presumably all 18 years old.) They came canvassing door to door to get signatures just so they could qualify, so Fernando took signed it. He thought it was interesting to have a Marxist party running! He asked if I wanted to sign, but I had just woken up, so I said something rude in return. Which would translate into: They'll never win, so why do I have to get out of my bed! ;-) Fernando... clearly a better supporter of democracy than I.

The Liberals in Quebec won a few more seats in this election, but the PQ didn't exactly lose since they got back some of their seats from the ADQ, who got killed.

This is what happens when you stay up too late

You catch up on all the internet memes you missed. I'm not sure if the fact that I didn't know any of these, except Star Wars Kid and Dramatic Hamster, makes me uncool... or reassures me that I don't spend too much time on the interwebs.

And now I shall go to bed. Chocolate raaaain... hmm hmm la la dee de deee de de...

sleep... ya whatevah!

Man, my sleep schedule is all weirded out since Nanowrimo. It's 6:30 AM and I want to make a sandwich and settle into some writing... mehhhh! I don't wanna go to bed! (Sung to: I Don't Wanna Grow Up.) Meanwhile there are apartment lights on across the parking lot... presumably because these people are getting ready for work. Crikey! Maybe I'll make a sandwich... but read a book instead.



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Update at 7:20 AM - Well, I'm glad I stayed up. Gilby noticed I kept posting on facebook, so he called from the airport on his way out to his vacation.

Bosie your poetry is so gay!

Since I'm on the topic of gay guys. I recently read, for the first time, the poem written by Oscar Wilde's lover Bosie (the one whose idiot father got Wilde thrown in prison) where the sentence "the love that dare not speak its name" came from.

The first time I heard the expression "the love that dare not speaks its name" was from an erudite work friend. It's so pukey sounding, I just love it. But the actual poem is sort of -- sniff sniff -- sweet. I feel like my mother did the first time she saw the context for the song "When I'm calling yoooooooooooouuuuuu" because I was tearing through all the Jeanette McDonald and Nelson Eddy movies; and my mother was ashamed to find that the much-mocked song was actually touching within the context of the movie.

The poem is called "Two Loves." It's pretty bad--here's a typical line.

There were pools that dreamed
Black and unruffled; there were white lilies
A few, and crocuses, and violets
Purple or pale, snake-like fritillaries
Scarce seen for the rank grass, and through green nets
Blue eyes of shy peryenche winked in the sun.

The narrator of the poem comes across two figures, one of whom is pretty jolly, the other looks haunted and depressed. The narrator asks the depressed one what his name is. He says: "Love." The jolly one gets all mad and says: "No I'M Love! He's some upstart running around in my garden." And the depressed one says: "(sniff sniff) Alright, I am the Love that dare not speak its name." Sniff sniff. A good ending to a crappy poem. ...But I still hate Bosie. (I hated him for being an asshole, but apparently he was a total anti-Semite too. Bleh!)

'Sweet youth,
Tell me why, sad and sighing, thou dost rove
These pleasent realms? I pray thee speak me sooth
What is thy name?' He said, 'My name is Love.'
Then straight the first did turn himself to me
And cried, 'He lieth, for his name is Shame,
But I am Love, and I was wont to be
Alone in this fair garden, till he came
Unasked by night; I am true Love, I fill
The hearts of boy and girl with mutual flame.'
Then sighing, said the other, 'Have thy will,
I am the love that dare not speak its name.'

I can't top the other blogger's clever title

Noticed this good article linked to someone's blog--and their blog was cleverly titled "I kissed a guy and I didn't like it." I can't believe the shit Letterman is quoted as having said. Maybe it's time the old boy was put out to pasture. Sounds like James Franco is doing a good job, though--especially since the movie in question is about a gay rights activist, for heaven's sake. (I'm excited about seeing Milk--San Franciscoooo!)

I seem to remember when kd lang was asked what it was like to kiss Cindy Crawford (for Vanity Fair) she said something like: What do you think??

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In the relentless publicity interviews he's been doing for his new movie, "Milk," there's plenty to ask about his performance as the neglected lover of San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, the gay rights martyr. So what does every interviewer -- from David Letterman to the Philippine Daily Inquirer to public radio's Terry Gross -- want to discuss most, over and over and over?

The kissing.

Wasn't it really difficult to kiss another man? Implied: Without throwing up, seeing as you're so obviously straight? What were you thinking as you kissed? Did you rehearse it? What was it liiiiiike?

Underlying the questions (and the answers) is this notion that a gay kissing scene must be the worst Hollywood job hazard that a male actor could face, including stunt work, extreme weather or sitting through five hours of special-effects makeup every day. We live comfortably, if strangely, in a pseudo-Sapphic era in which seemingly every college woman with a MySpace page has kissed another girl for the camera; but for men who kiss men, it's still the final frontier.

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Wow... a burning Christmas tree

We had riots over a police-shooting-youth incident this year too, but I guess Montrealers aren't as exciting as Athenians. (Or maybe it's just cause it wasn't Christmas yet.) A burning Christmas tree! I think I'll start amassing a Top 10 Nightmares Before Christmas list...