The Mangler is at it again (w/poll)
George W. Bush's verbal faux pas are legendary. It is not surprising that his gaffes would continue after (finally) leaving office, and in his very first speech in front of a friendly audience in...
View ArticleMay 8 (V-E Day) in my French village (updated w/photos)
I picked up my daughter at her boarding school near Aix-en-Provence last night, and stayed in Aix so that we could watch the new Star Trek movie (in French, alas), but I made sure that I would be back...
View ArticleI did not know that he was dead.
A very belated, and too-brief tribute to one of America's very best writers of our time.
View ArticlePiling it on for Froomkin
The hundreds of readers' responses (845 so far) to the Washington Post's decision to fire Dan Froomkin ("White House Watch") have been overwhelmingly negative. Although the odds seem slender-to-none...
View ArticleMy last-minute letter to President Obama
I've been traveling, I've been up to my eyeballs in work, but I really don't have any excuse for having procrastinated to this degree. But watching the latest MoveOn video, We Can't Afford to Wait, has...
View ArticleFrank Rich gives winger Beck a thrill?
I have mixed feelings about Frank Rich's having chosen to make Glenn Beck the focus of today's column. There is nothing Glenn Beck likes better than to be taken seriously, and this week's upswing of...
View Article3 out of 5 of us are now French citizens (updated w/poll)
After more than 11 months since filing our applications for French citizenship, three envelopes from the French Interior Ministry showed up in our mailbox this past Monday, November 2nd. As I grabbed...
View ArticleFrank Rich and West Wing vs. LTE
I was heartened to read Frank Rich's column in this morning's New York Times, "Smoke the Bigots Out of the Closet." I realize that he is talking about using Admiral Mullen's stance about repealing DADT...
View ArticleWhen JFK was shot (updated)
I was in second grade at Limerick Avenue Elementary School in Canoga Park, California (a suburb of Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley). It was a sunny day; we were all outside playing in the free...
View ArticleCoping with the news from Japan
It feels odd to me, possibly even inappropriate, that my means of coping with the dreadful news from Japan has been creativity. Yesterday in the tiny studio I've rented in Berlin (as a means to ensure...
View ArticleWhat is with these guys and their zizis?
As a devotee of Sphinctera the Vengeful Bladder Goddess here in very rural SE France, I am often up in the wee-wee hours. Thus I can lay claim to being one of the very first people in France to see the...
View ArticleIt's effin' BORING in heaven.
It won't be any consolation to those who expected to go rocketing off into the bosom of Jesus yesterday for front-row seats to watch the rest of us die in fear and agony, but the way my evangelical...
View ArticleComing August 15: Onerous new rules for expats and their non-US relatives
Per an email I received from the head of the French chapter of Democrats Abroad, as of this Monday, August 15th, the US State Department will no longer allow US consular services to process visas for...
View ArticleIn between emergencies ...
With another winter storm bearing down on New England later today, but with the seasonal lull in dramatic wind activities (= tornados and hurricanes), and hopefully a lull in seismic events (knock on...
View Article“Matt” died 5 years ago today
Four years ago I published a lengthy diary on the first anniversary of the death of my then-15-year-old nephew. In his honor and memory, I am publishing the same diary, with only a few edits, below the...
View ArticleI've done baptisms for the dead (w/poll)
Yes, it's true: when I was a youthful teen true believer, I was baptized for dozens of dead people. Follow me below the orange loops-de-kos to find out more about this practice and other (yes, other!)...
View ArticleUpdate on mormon baptism for the dead
Well, well, well… looks like all the negative PR and how it may adversely affect Mitt's chances has finally pushed the mormon church to belatedly take some steps to get its members to stop submitting...
View ArticleI just voted here in France (updated x2)
Aux urnes, citoyens! ("To the ballot boxes, citizens!")I just got back from the village multi-purpose hall (named, rather grandiosely, La Salle Émancipatrice— literally, "the liberating room," but...
View ArticleBare Naked Lady, or post-mormon nudity, part I
More than 10 years ago, prior to moving to Europe, I participated in an off-off-off-Broadway (try Salt Lake City) mormon takeoff on The Vagina Monologues. My monologue from that time is posted below...
View ArticlePost-mormon nudity, part II (or, bare naked lady? who, me?)
More than ten years ago I participated in a mormon version of The Vagina Monologues. I published that monologue yesterday. A few weeks ago I was asked to contribute a follow-up… and that's what's below...
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