Bernie's Back, Girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                               Some of you on here, darlings, may not know, or recall, who this is, but let me tell you, at one time--almost 30 years ago, he was big news!

                                Berhanrd Goetz found his way into tabloid immortality when, on December 22, 1984, he open fried a gun at five teen thugs he thought were out to accost him.  Where it got dicey was that the thugs were of the type that today would wear hoodies, and talk of "da hood;" you know, what I mean!  But, let me tell you, it doesn't make a difference who attacks you, when you are the victim!  As I can tell you, from experience, as none of my attackers were from "da hood!"  One of Goetz' victims, Darrell Cabey, 19 at the time, was brain damaged and paralyzed, as a result of Goetz' retaliation.  The race of the attackers versus Goetz, and the damage done to Cabey, divided the city, at the time, and, to a large extent, still does.

                               Should Goetz really have been carrying a gun on the subway?  No!!!  Would those guys have gone after him, if he had not been????  You better believe it!  It is unfortunate Cabey was injured the way he was; Goetz should have exercised more caution, particularly as he had been known to make remarks about wanting to kill!

                                 New York was a rougher city three decades ago.  To think this took place, shortly after I moved here!  Things may be less rough now, but incidents still happen.  To this day, I feel what Goetz did was instinctually right!  I might have done the same thing.  His greatest mistakes were his outright arrogance, and, being a somewhat skilled marksman, not aiming in a more cautious way--that is, to stop them from advancing, but not killing or maiming!!!!

                                 As things do in this town, the incident passed into legend, and Bernhard Goetz was largely forgotten!!!!!  I was beginning to wonder if he still lived in New York!!!!!

                                  Well, guess what, darlings????????  He's back!  Wait till you hear this!

                                   Subway Bernie, now 65--he will turn 66 this coming Thursday--was busted in Union Square Park last Friday--All Saints Day, darlings!!! Can you believe it!!!--for allegedly selling pot to a female  undercover cop!!!!!!!!!

                                     Hey, Bernie, what gives??????  Do you just need a jolt of fame???????  Are you trying to be cool, going from being the Subway Vigilante to the Coot Who Smokes And Sells Weed???????
What is it with this guy, girls???????????????

                                     The portrait Goetz was anxious to paint of himself during his earlier days, was of a straight arrow, a Good Citizen!!!!  Guess things aren't what they seem, huh, Bern?????  Just goes to show--some of the straightest arrows out there can be the most crooked!!!! Believe me, I know!

                                    The Song Of Bernhard Goetz is no "Song Of Bernadette."  What will this guy do next, before he goes to the nursing home??????????

                                      Probably manufacture home made catheters!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                 

Please Don't Tell Me This Is Going To Be A Homophobic Month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                         There are two interesting things about this story, darlings!!!  The first is that Ryan Langenegger, pictured above is straight.  The second is that there is actually a hip version of Omaha, Nebraska.  It is called the Old Market!!!!!!!!  Who would have thought?  And what would Marlin Perkins have thought, if he was still alive??????????

                                           Not only is Ryan straight, he is a U.S. Marine, usually not the most forward thinking of individuals!!!! I mean, come on, the military?  Well, he, and two friends of his, who are gay--Joshua Foo and Jacob Gellinger--were hanging out, munching and socializing at the Pepper Jax Grill!  Remember, girls, this is Omaha, not the Big apple, or the Big Easy!!!!!!!!!!!  One of the friends, Gellinger, was dressed in drag.  The three had attended a drag show together.  Whether Gellinger was a performer, or just in the party spirit, is not clear.  What is clear is that three homophobic thugs--the kind who should have been at home nibbling on their beer and beef jerky, while beating their wives or girl friends, began harassing the group.  One of the men told the drag Gellinger he was "disgusting," then the trio began beating on Ryan, when he stood up to defend his friends!!!!  Ryan was cut badly, and given a nasty gash on his forehead!!!!!!!!!!

                                         Police are investigating this as a Hate Crime--duh, YEAH!!!!!!--and  I hope they nail these jerks to the wall!  Imprison them, make them read VOGUE, and teach them to sew!  Then put them in a sweatshop!  Maybe with Kathie Lee!!!!!!!!!  As for Ryan, kudos to this guy!  Not only do you tell it to the Marines, not all militia are homophobes!!!!!!!!  Some are even gay, themselves!!!!!!!!!!

                                         As Alice Faye sang, in the 1936 Shirley Temple film, "Poor Little Rich Girl,  "I love a military man!!!!!!!!!!"

                                         Oh, my goodness, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So Much Fun, Darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!! But, There Was One Mary I Just KNEW Would Be Covered!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                     We stayed in, Halloween night, but this program started so late--Midnight--and neither one of us wanted to stay up, so Monsieur kindly taped it for me.  Imagine our shock, last night, when we discovered, around 9PM, it was going to be repeated!  How could we have known?????

                                       As it is, I will have to watch the taped version again, maybe tonight, because, somewhere toward the end, when I saw they were  covering the Mary I knew, I missed the end part of that segment.  I have to hear what they say!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                       The Mary in question, who I was sure they would include, was child killer, Mary Bell, from Scotland!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                   Mary Flora Bell was born on May 26, 1957.  Her mother was seventeen at the time, and wanted nothing to do with her.  No one is sure who the biological father is,  though it was popularly thought to be Billy Bell, whom her mother, Betty McCrickett, had taken up with.  To support the two of them, Betty turned to prostitution, but she was no Fantine.  She often neglected Mary, leaving her at home for vast stretches of time.  As Mary grew older, her mother sometimes had her watch her interactions with clients, and it is widely suspected Mary was sexually abused by some of them.  Nice, huh??????

                                      Perhaps it was inevitable Mary would act out, though that does not excuse anything.  But act out she did; on May 25, 1968, the day before her 11th birthday, she lured a four-year-old boy, Martin Brown, to an abandoned building, where she strangled him.  She did this crime alone.  But the generally friendless Mary did have one friend, a slow witted 13-year-old girl named Norma Joyce Bell--same name, but not related.  The two girls together broke into a local nursery school, (this was in the Glasgow area!!!!!!!!) which was in Scotswood, trashing the place, and leaving notes saying they were jointly responsible for the killing of Martin Brown.  Police did not take the matter seriously.

                                          But when, on July 31, 1968, in that same Scotswood area, Mary and Norma both lured three-year-old Brian Howe to a wasteland area, and jointly strangled him, this could not be overlooked.. Mary was said to have returned to the body, mutilating him genitally with a pair of scissors and trying to carve her initial, "M." onto his chest.

                                           On December 17, 1969, Norma Bell was acquitted, but Mary Bell was sentenced to St, Helen's facility, in Lancashire, which would later house another child killer--Jon Veanbles, one of the murderers of James Bulger, on February 17, 1993.

                                             The story should have ended there, with Bell in the slammer for Life, where she belongs!!!!!!!!! But, would you believe, she was  released, in 1980, age 23, given a new identity, went on to marry, have a daughter, and become a grandmother??????  What right does she have to all that after destroying the life of two innocent children???????  And her daughter, who is probably grown now, if Mary is a granny, has the right to know what kind of a monster her mother is/was. And so do those grandchildren!!!!!!!!!!

                                              By the way, darlings, if any of this sounds just a tad bit familiar, it should.  It was used, with small liberties taken, as my favorite "Law And Order" episode, "Killerz," from 1999, wherein young Hallee Hirsh, in a performance that should have won her an Emmy, played Jenny Brandt.

                                                Consider.

                                                 Jenny Brandt is ten years old.  She hangs out with Tara Padden, 13, so slow witted she has repeated the sixth grade twice!  She and Jenny lure Aaron Polansky, to an abandoned
construction site, where, with Tara looking on, Jenny beats him to death with a rock, pulls down his pants, and sticks a battery in his mouth.  Then they stick his body, at least partially, into a drain pipe, and leave it there.

                                                  Jenny's mother (wonderfully played by Luba Mason) is some kind of dumb  tramp.  Her husband, Vince, Jenny's father, is in jail for car theft, and her mother leaves the door open as she has sex with boy friends, so Jenny is getting an eyeful.  And cultivating a hatred for men!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                  Mary was convicted, but, in the story, Jenny gets off, because no one wants to believe a little girl in knee socks and pigtails can kill. And the judicial figures, with the exception of Jack McCoy, are all women.  Only Angie Harmon, as Abbie Carmichael, is not taken in by Jenny's act.

                                                    The last shot of the segment shows a serial killer sizing up their next victim, as Jack McCoy looks on in horror.  I could not produce that one, but  take a look at this. It is a brilliant glimpse of a truly sociopathic child.

                                       Hallee Hirsh is simply brilliant in this role, and you should see it. But no doubt about it, darlings, I know my sociopaths.  I can spot one a mile away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I Bet It Was Quicker For Dorothy To Get To Oz!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                   What a day off I had, yesterday, darlings!!!!!!!!!  It started with a highlight--a Cujo sighting, on my way to the 77th Street subway, in Brooklyn.  He was so adorable and lovable, and big and strong!  He gave me sweet doggie kisses from his terrace, and when I moved to the driveway, to call my beloved Monsieur, to let him know Cujo was out, he followed me, right to the side of that railing!  I just love Cujo!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                     Touted by Tartt--Donna Tartt, that is!!!--I had heard about The Corner Bookstore, way uptown, on the corner of Madison Avenue and East Ninety Third Street.  Not an area I am seen in too  often, if at all!!!!!!  The selling point, at least initially for me, was they shelve all their copies of books published by New York Review Books Classics together, which I like. So, with them having just reprinted "The Other," I decided to venture uptown, to see what I might have missed.

                                      Well, what a journey, girls!   Almost two hours!!!!!!!!!  I started from 77th Street in Bay Ridge, changed at Atlantic for the number 5, which took me to East 86th Street.  I had to switch to a 6 local from there, because the 5 goes to 125th Street from 86th!!!!!!!!!!  And, of course, in between, there is all this walking to do, in order to get to the correct platform.  I almost wonder if I would not have been better walking up 86th to 93rd Street.  I might have saved time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                        I came out of the ground, at East 96th and Lexington, which I had no idea was so hilly up there.  I trounced over to Madison, where I felt, for a time, like Blythe Danner, with all  these designer outlets and make-up shops available.   Just what you would expect, from the Upper East Side.  And I am pretty sure Blythe has a New York place up there, somewhere.  But, suddenly, I felt I was in the world of Caleb Carr's "The Alienist," or "The Castle Of Otranto," because, all of a sudden, I am walking along the side of this huge, castle like fortress.  There was so little room between me and the street I felt like I was scaling the wall!!!!!!!!!!  How out of place, creepy, and surreal!  No wonder I don't get up here, too often!

                                         When I entered the store, I found two lovely young men working--men of my orientation, darlings, you better believe it!!!!!!--and they explained that the building I passed had at one time been an armory, and some schools in the area use the outside of it for a play space!  Go figure!  But the two young men were charming, right out of an E.M. Forster novel, though why they did not offer me tea and a seat on the divan I could not understand.  There are divans there, for reading, darlings, but after the journey I
undertook to get there, I wanted to get back to where I felt civilized and comfortable.

                                             Oh, the store!  Well, it is small, charming, and beautifully laid out. If you are in
the area, or live there, it is an excellent place to go; especially if looking for high quality, literary fiction.  But I have to say the New York Review Books Classics shelf was decidedly overrated.  I thought there would be rows, floor to ceiling of them; instead, I saw only two bays.  Not quite the selection I had imagined.  Nevertheless, I found a couple of items, paid, and left.  I then decided to take a cross town bus, travel down to Three Lives, where I am much more comfortable, and check the merchandise out there!

                                               Well, getting cross town on the bus at 96th and Madison is like taking the subway from one borough to another!  Pushing, shoving, and, let me tell you, those cane wielding old ladies are the nastiest!  When I become a Bitchy Old Queen on the buses of this city, with my shopping bags, and screaming about Socialism, these biddies--though they would be my contemporaries by then--had better not mess with me!!!!!!!!!!!!  Honestly, I am telling you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                   I felt so relieved, when I got on that subway, at West 96th Street.  And, when I came out of the ground, at Christopher, I felt like I had returned to the real world!!!!!!!!!  The saying is true; you live in New York City long enough, it is nothing more than a series of small towns, each with its particular flavor!!!!!!!!!!  But some flavors I prefer to others!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                    I walked into Three Lives and felt so good!!!!!!!!!!  Toby was there which is always wonderful.  I took a good look at their stock, and let me tell you, while they don't shelve the
New York Review Books Classics together, I saw titles there I did not see uptown, and overall, I would say I saw more titles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                       All of which helps to validate my being a creature of habit!  So, I am sticking with Three Lives and what I know!!!!!!!!!!  The adventure I had was one I needed to experience, but not ever again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                          I mean, even Professors Challenger and Summerlee found their way out of "The Lost World!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Can You Believe It, Girls???????????? Holiday Homophobia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                           The Holiday Season is not yet officially upon us, darlings, (that does not happen until Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!!!!) and yet controversy is upon us already.  Hallmark, the greeting card manufacturer, has come out, this year, with a pretty Christmas ornament, resembling a sweater, which DARES to change a classic Christmas lyric!!!!!!!!!  I mean, would this happen to Sondheim???????  You bet it wouldn't!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                             With all the Christmas lyrics to choose from, why would Hallmark choose this one??????  The answer is simple--to garner all the homophobic publicity it can!

                                                The lyric is from that secular classic "Deck The Halls."  In the song itself, the correct phrase is "Don we now our gay apparel."  Has been that way for over a century.  Well, now, Hallmark has transformed that into "Don we now our fun apparel."  Yes, it fits, lyrically and melodically, but this is so wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                  Let's get something straight, dolls!!!!!!!!!!!   The word "gay" is a perfectly good one, and has been around, long before it was adopted for use by the homosexual community.  Its literal meaning is "lighthearted and carefree," which may help to explain why homosexuals adopted it, as it exemplified everything they wanted to be, and felt (and still do) they had a right to being, rather than being persecuted, as in days of yore.  And still, to some degree, today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                  In the song, it is meant to suggest the clothes are colorful and stylish.  Which, in today's fashion world,  has a homosexual context, but, when it was written, did not.  Orr maybe it was just better hidden!

                                                   It is true that today, when one looks at the word "gay," the first association is with  homosexuality.  Children even recognize it as such, though they may still use the words "queer," or "homo."

                                                    The lyrical change is a slap in the face at gays all over the world!  If there are any gays working at Hallmark, they should be ashamed of themselves, for selling out to such an organization!!!!!!!!!!

                                                       What is Macy's slogan?  "We're a part of your life?"  Hallmark's, I think, was "When you care enough to send the very best!"  Yeah, right!  Send the one who thought this up straight to the back of the Unemployment Line!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                          There is no excuse for dissing both the Holidays and the gay community.  On behalf of that community, I demand the removal of this ornament from sale, and an apology from one of the upper ups in the company!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                           I will admit their cards and such are pretty.  But the gay community, and its dollars, is even prettier!!!!!!!!  Let's make sure Hallmark remembers that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                           Season's Greetings, loves!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                         

Happy Feast Of All Saints, Darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                          Being a saint has plenty of perks, girls, but it can't be all that easy.  Just see what Jennifer Jones goes through in "The Song Of Bernadette," if you don't believe me!!!!!!!!!  Or how about Joan of Arc--that sister who really cooked????????????  Or  Stephen, martyred by being stoned to death, as a young man!!!!!!!!!!!!  Let me tell you, it takes more than a body pain wracked from stone floors, to become a saint!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                             Each saint has his or her designated feast day.  But, on November 1, we honor ALL the saints, which I think is a fabulous idea, and which gives them all, in the Celestial Beyond, a chance to get together, and "party, like it's 1999!!!!!!!!!"

                                              On this day, we honor all present, and future saints.  There are some out there, like Sister Camille D'Arienzo, who, by their words and teachings, merit sainthood themselves!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                Here's to them all!!!!!!!  A healthy glass of wine, everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                   

Welcome To November, Big Boys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                   
                                              I guess the Halloween spirit hasn't left me yet, darlings, because I just could not resist starting out this month of months with Zit Johann from "The Mummy!"

                                                  With all  the events set to happen this month, November can often seem like one Big Party!!!!!!!!  So, I wanted a shot of Zita in her party outfit, to start things off, right!

                                                      In "The Mummy," Zita just can't stop partying, from having flashbacks to the past, in the present,as reincarnated Helen Grosvemnor, or her more fun, spirited past self, Princess Ankh-es-enamon, or Princess Ankah, for short!!!!!!!!!!  Let's face it, the Princess looks better in Egyptian digs than she does in those Thirties designer  knockoffs spun out by sweatshop workers for her, over at Universal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                       Which is just my way of saying, darlings, I want you to have the most glamour filled November, ever!  Before you know it, the Holiday Season will be upon us.  Maybe I will see some of you on stage, as Rockettes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                          So, Happy November, girls!!!!!!!!  It's not just for turkeys, anymore!!!!!!!!!!!!