GLAA Forum

Star Spangled Banner -- Whitney Houston

In the aftermath of the death of singer Whitney Houston on the eve of the Grammy Awards, her talents have been fittingly celebrated. Her early death, like that of too many other stars, presents a cautionary tale of the pressures of fame. What has annoyed me in the past few days, though, has been the endless series of short clips showing her singing just a few bars of this or that.

Here, then, is the complete video of her glorious rendition of the American National Anthem at the Super Bowl in 1991, in honor of those who served in the first Gulf War. Speaking of the troops, taking care of each other is one of the hallmarks of military training and bonding. The lesson to take from Houston's untimely death is not only to take care of yourself, but to look out for each other. Addiction is not something one can overcome alone.

In watching her performance again, the long-held final note is the most glorious thing of all. She had good teachers, including her mother. This was a young woman who knew the mechanics of singing and put it all together to make the absolute most of her gifts.

CPAC Rap

The Conservative Political Action Conference is in town and there are the usual stories about how many attendees are attempting to score on Craigslist and how many Grindr fans there are.  But the Huffington Post has found this gem of the crowd gettng down to Fox News contributor Steve Crowder and Chris Loesch the husband of conservative commentator Dana Loesch rapping about "Mr. America.

A Valentine for Newt from The Capital Steps

The Capital Steps send you a Valentines Day 2012 greeting.  And Truth Wins Out seems to have an issue with Newt "Swingrich" Gingrich as well.

(via JoeMyGod)

Ellen spanks One Million Moms

Ellen Degeneres took a few minutes on here show to give One Million Moms a spanking.  She pointed out that their Facebook page shows only 40,000 members.  They had called on JC Penny to ditch her as spokesman because she was an affront to traditional values.  The retailer has declined to do so.  Ellen explains her own traditional values to the audience:

I usually don't talk about stuff like this on my show, but I really want to thank everyone who is supporting me. Here are the values I stand for. I stand for honesty, equality, kindness, compassion, treating people the way you'd want to be treated and helping those in need.To me, those are traditional values. That's what I stand for…I also believe in dance.

(via Towleroad)

The fuss over the Queen's #DiamondJubilee

Our good friend Bob Witeck on Monday posted the above photo on Facebook with this comment:

Today's milestone must be marked as the 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's remarkable reign, and a moment to recall the young princess who grew into a sovereign.

With all due respect, what in the world is remarkable about it other than her sheer longevity? Her job is purely ceremonial, is entirely out of date, and reinforces romanticism about what was a far more bloody and ruthless empire than many are willing to admit. Look up the Opium War and the Amritsar Massacre. Yes, those events were long ago. The Falklands war wasn't so long ago--a bizarre colonialist adventure. What unthinkable horrors would have befallen England had Betty Windsor publicly criticized Thatcher? Then there is Hong Kong, which was acquired in a disgraceful way. It was only a few years before they had to turn it over to China that the British Crown (as they perpetually refer to themselves) at long last decided to democratize the place. Please.

The fondness for the British royals by many Americans is baffling. We fought a war to be free of them.

Update: Bob Witeck replies:

Rick, two words: Costume flicks. No matter how irrelevant the monarchy in the 21st Century, my own appetite for historical (and even contemporary) films about the royals is still strong. What a crop in recent years with Helen Mirren playing QEI and QEII, Emily Blunt playing Victoria, and flock of English players playing everyone from Richard III to Prince Harry. There are enough narratives, melodramas, murders, misbegotten romances to fill movie theaters till kingdom come.

That I agree with. There is certainly no shortage of drama with that lot.

Kidnapped for Christ #exgay

Kidnapped for Christ follows the stories of several American teenagers who were sent to Escuela Caribe, an American-run Evangelical Christian reform school in The Dominican Republic.

Also Chaim Levin, a young Jewish man, today describes on Pink News what it was like to be subjected to reparative therapy.  The most shocking part of his story:

The worst part of my experience in reparative therapy came at the end. In a locked office, alone with my unlicensed ‘life coach’, who said he was an ‘ex-gay man’ I was told to undress, stand in front of the counsellor and do things too graphic to describe in this article. I was extremely uncomfortable, but he said that I must do this for the sake of changing and that if I didn’t remove my clothing I wouldn’t be doing the work it takes to achieve change. I would do anything to change, and so I did what he asked me to do. It was probably the most traumatising experience of my life.

Sadly gay men are particulary susceptible to this type of sexual predator.  The consequences of having your sexual orientation revealed could be exile from your family or religious community.  And religious figures are in a particularly advantageous position to expoit the vulnerable.  They know which childlren are from alcoholic or abusive homes and need special attention.  They know who is in financial need or susceptible to flattery.  They know which children are considered liars and troublemakers by their families and can groom their prey over months or years.  And wrapped in a cloak of righteousness they can deny everything.  All of these factors make gay teens and young adults particularly vulnerable to abusers.  Churches have for years fought tooth and nail against gay rights but are slowly losing ground.

Bill Maher un-baptizes Mitt Romney's father-in-law

I always saw religion as a belief in a diety.  And athiesm as the belief that there is no diety.  Apparently Bill Maher doesn't see it that way.

#LGBTFacts, homosexual males have larger penises

Researching the topic of twitter hasttags I came across #LGBTFacts, Hijacked Twitter Hashtag, Pokes Fun At Anti-Gay User With Parody Tweets.

A Twitter user dedicated to "spreading the truth about the abhorrent homosexual lifestyle" can't be too thrilled by the recent pro-gay "hijacking" of the #lgbtfacts hashtag for more humorous purposes.

Though its legitimacy is, of course, questionable, @LGBTFacts has offered up some incredibly offensive statements on Twitter about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and allies.

Read the article to see more about this including example of the LGBT "facts" and how it has been parodied.  I read the "fact" about penis length long ago.  A research measured the lenght of gay and staight men's penises and found that when it comes to your junk gay men have a small advantage.  Let's say they are a silly millimeter longer.  Other research seems to back the finding.  (With a large enough sample you can make make statistically valid statements for very small changes.)  Gay men also sexually mature at a slightly younger age according to researchers.

Gay Men's Chorus of Washington does Madonna

 

(via Washington Blade)

BTW... Madonna's new single comes out this Friday, February 3rd... and make sure to watch her at this Sunday's Superbowl.

Lady ga... who?

Gay Men's Chorus of Washington does Gaga

Along with winter themed music.  Unfortunately the sound is a bit messed up at first

(via Towleroad)

The hell I won't!

Okay, I admit it — I thought of this scene from the 1963 movie McLintock! because I was disgusted by the disrespect that has been shown toward the President, and I was thinking that he oughta forget about Jackie Robinson and belt someone in the mouth. Not gonna happen, but watching this made me feel so much better.

Rushdie says Indian police invented death threat

Agence France-Presse reports:

British author Salman Rushdie on Sunday accused Indian police of making up an underworld plot to assassinate him that forced him to pull out of a literary festival this weekend.

Rushdie withdrew from the event in Jaipur, the state capital of Rajasthan, after being warned by Indian officials that paid gunmen were heading to the city to kill him for his writing that is alleged to insult Muslims.

But Rushdie said that he now believed the supposed plot — apparently undertaken by Mumbai criminal gangs — had been invented to keep him away from the festival and to avoid controversy.

“I’ve investigated, & believe that I was indeed lied to. I am outraged and very angry,” Rushdie said on Twitter after newspaper reports that Rajasthan police had concocted the death threat.

Rushdie’s 1988 novel “The Satanic Verses”, which remains banned in India, is seen by many Muslims worldwide as a blasphemous work that insults their religion....

Writers Hari Kunzru and Amitava Kumar read out passages of “The Satanic Verses” from the stage in protest on Friday, angering some local Muslim groups who had welcomed Rushdie’s withdrawal from the programme.

The festival in Jaipur is a high-profile event, with the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Richard Dawkins in attendance. Bravo to those who protested the threats against Rushdie, and to the authors who read from his work there.

As disturbing as those who respond to disagreeable literature by threatening to kill the author are those who sympathize with them or say things like, "You don't have the right to offend other people's religion." Yes we damn well do. And I am not just talking about the United States, whose First Amendment protects freedom of speech and of the press in addition to the free exercise of religion. One of Europe's most renowned writers is Günter Grass, whose most famous novel, The Tin Drum has some astonishing blasphemous passages (which I, who was raised a Catholic, loved). In that case, the blasphemy related to Christianity. In 1989, during the furor over The Satanic Verses (which I have read and enjoyed, btw), I heard Islamic scholars insist that the West would never tolerate anti-Christian blasphemy. That claim was demonstrably, laughably false. Grass, incidentally, was one of the authors who guaranteed publication of the German translation of Rushdie's book.

As it happens, Rushdie is one of my favorite authors. I have had countless hours of enjoyment reading his imaginative, perceptive, vivid and witty work. My favorites among his books include The Moor's Last Sigh, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Shalimar the Clown, and The Enchantress of Florence — all of which, incidentally, were written after Ayatollah Khoumeini issued the fatwa against him. Possibly his greatest work is Midnight's Children, which won Britain's Booker Prize and the Booker of Bookers. I do think that having read his work makes me more qualified to speak about it than people who condemn him without having bothered to read him. But those who oppose him, whether they are informed or not, are free to avoid reading him. They are also free to write books or articles or blogs criticizing him. They are not free, or should not be free, to suppress his work or to call for his death.

Incidentally, while it is not pertinent to the issue of defending his freedom as an author, Mr. Rushdie is a longtime pro-gay liberal. Besides the Ayatollah, one of the other real-life characters whom he lampooned in The Satanic Verses was Margaret Thatcher, whom he dubbed Maggie Torture. In contrast to the Ayatollah's reaction to the book, Mrs. Thatcher's government placed Rushdie, a British subject, under her government's protection. That nicely illustrates the difference between a free country and a theocracy.

Chris Rock from The Black List

Jane Lincoln writes, "This exhibit and these short films are still at the National Portrait Gallery at Gallery Place. MUST GO SEE. It was awesome."

Chris Rock's comments are highly insightful. The following is from the description accompanying the YouTube video.

As a new chapter begins in this country, The Black List offers a dynamic and never-before-heard perspective from achievers of color. This series of inspired—and inspiring—observations on African-American life in the 21st century forms a roll call of some of the most compelling politicians, writers, thinkers and performers ever to tackle their fields of endeavor. Watch the interview-portraits and get a sharper snapshot of where this country has been and where its headed. Directed by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, Interviews by Elvis Mitchell. Stars Collin Powell, Toni Morrison, Sean P Diddy Combs, Slash, Chris Rock, Susan Rice, Lou Gossett Jr., Russell Simmons and many more.

White Girls at the Club

Jenna Marbles offers advice, in the form of a rant, to her fellow white girls who go to the club. Someone hold me back — she makes these girls sound so attractive! Of course, the fallacy in this is that if you hang out at clubs, you are going to be spending time with an unrepresentative population sample consisting of other people who hang out at clubs. This brings with it a higher likelihood of drunkenness. Chivalry compels me to note that my own lovely nieces, most of whom are white, do not behave as Ms. Marbles describes. As far as I know.

(Hat tip: Mark Lee)

Star Wars: Uncut

I wanted to have a little Star Wars marathon over the holidays.  Sadly my VCR has broken so I can't watch my tapes anymore.  I am sure the movie makers could demand that this be removed from the Internet.  But would that be a wise move?  Seeing this will remind people of what a great movie  series this was and lead to more sales.  But Hollywood can be quite dumb about things.

Finally, the crowd-sourced project has been stitched together and put online for your streaming pleasure. The "Director's Cut" is a feature-length film that contains hand-picked scenes from the entire StarWarsUncut.com collection.

Many thanks to Aaron Valdez (video editor - http://www.aaronvaldez.com) and Bryan Pugh (sound design/mixing - http://www.pughtube.com) for the countless hours they put into this masterpiece.

The Story:

In 2009, Casey Pugh asked thousands of Internet users to remake "Star Wars: A New Hope" into a fan film, 15 seconds at a time. Contributors were allowed to recreate scenes from Star Wars however they wanted. Within just a few months SWU grew into a wild success. The creativity that poured into the project was unimaginable.

SWU has been featured in documentaries, news features and conferences around the world for its unique appeal. In 2010 we won a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Creative Achievement In Interactive Media.

We can't thank everyone enough for making this such a special project.

http://StarWarsUncut.com

(via Towleroad)

Metro Weekly interviews Wilson Cruz; Geidner nominated for GLAAD Media Award

Chris Geidner interviews actor Wilson Cruz for Metro Weekly. Here's an excerpt:

METRO WEEKLY: What will you be sharing with folks at Creating Change?

WILSON CRUZ: I'm actually doing a bit of a cabaret for them. It's called Love Child because, growing up, I had an affinity for the song ''Love Child.'' Just because I think I was a bit of a love child growing up.

My idea of love was a bit skewed. It was always about, if there was no pain involved, then it wasn't really love – really messed up.

I'm going to take people on a journey about love, what I've learned about love in the past 10 years. I think it's a great thing to talk to the Creating Change folks about because I've done a lot of this work. I've been a field organizer for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, I've worked on the Obama campaign, I'm a pretty political person. What I've realized is that, in doing my work as an activist and an organizer and such, we lose sight of what it is that we're actually fighting for.

I'm in the process of picking music that is going to help me tell that story. It's the story of falling in love, and what we do to sabotage that, and how we find ourselves ready to be open to loving again.

Also, congrats to Chris for being nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for his four-part series last year on the history of DOMA.

Obama spins gold with a few bars of Al Green

President Obama was at New York's famed Apollo Theater yesterday, and paid tribute to Rev. Al Green, who was in the house, by singing a bit of his "Let's Stay Together." The President does have a pleasant singing voice, judging by that brief sample. Definitely several steps up from the Singing Senators.

Update: The President sure is getting a lot of mileage out of a few seconds of soul singing. Here is a performance of the song on "Late Night" from 1989 featuring Al Green with a crew assembled by Paul Shaffer including Toni Childs, Carlos Santana, Tito Puente, David Sanborn, and Melissa Etheridge.

Never too busy to wish Betty White a happy 90th

The President asks for a copy of Betty White's long-form birth certificate.

Hold on, brother

Our friend playwright Alan Sharpe shares this lovely photo, via J.T. Greenwood.

Tebowie

Jimmy Fallon uses David Bowie's "Space Oddity" to mock Denver Broncos QB Tim Tebow's religious exhibitionism. Much deserved.

Sh*t anti-gay bigots say

(via JoeMyGod)

Now bigotry is funny?

Remember last summer when there was a flap about a bigoted rant comedian Tracy Morgan made under the guise of comedy?  Yeah, neither fo I.  I think he said if his son were gay he would kill him, but it may be he would just assault him. Ha Ha.  Now that is comedy for you.  But now word comes that the show "30 Rock" will mock the controversy in a very special episode.

"Well, you know how a lot of their episodes mirror their lives ... They've incorporated [Morgan's rant] into the Tracy Jordan storyline," MSNBC's Thomas Roberts, who makes a cameo appearance on the show, said of a forthcoming episode. "Liz Lemon writes Tracy's apology on the show and says he's not a homophobe, he's an idiot. That offends idiots, so while NBC is being picketed by the LBGT community, now it's also being picketed by idiots led by Denise Richards. She's the leader of the idiots."

I am not sure I follow the message here.  Is it that people who protest anti-gay bigotry are idiots?  They are being oversensitive?  Perhaps this is just the start of a series of shows where it is revealed the character Tracy Jordan is acting out deep-seated conflicts about his own sexuality and is in fact gay himself.  I generally avoid the term homophobia because only in rare cases is fear the primary factor.  And it is a fear not of gay people but rather of being exposed as gay.

.

'What we think, we become'

Okay, this is a bloody miracle. Meryl Streep channels the aged former Prime Minister in a scene from Iron Lady, opening Friday here in Washington.

"All you wonderful crackers"

Chef Goes Nanners
Get More: SOUTH
PARKmore...

In honor of the Republican presidential race, here's an excerpt from the South Park flag episode, featuring the late, great Isaac Hayes as Chef.

Times have changed

When I hear opponents of marriage equality talk say "They will teach it in the schools!" I wonder if they want there kids to be ignorant.  Checking a modern dictionary you will find same sex relationships are already convered.

(via WickedGayBlog)

An angel silenced

The Blade reports:

 

Peter Fox, a likable local gay singer/songwriter, died early Monday morning, according to a statement released by his family. He was 45 and died of central nervous system lymphoma according to his friend, fellow musician Tom Nichols.

Fox, a Pompton Plains, N.J., native, studied business and music at Pennsylvania State University and had devoted the last seven years mostly to singing. He performed at corporate and LGBT events, sang at the 2010 AIDS Walk and performed a cabaret show last summer at Signature Theatre. He had previously been active in the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington and sang in its Potomac Fever ensemble. His eponymous debut album came out in May, 2010. By day he was membership director for an HIV medical certification association. He had previously been a truck driver....

Fox became ill suddenly in November. A round of chemotherapy did not go well and doctors advised no further chemo treatment, Nichols said. Fox had just performed with Nichols at the release party for Nichols’ debut album. The two had sung together for more than a decade in the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington.

Fox was single but previously had a relationship with Antonio Casavez who lives in Australia but returned to the U.S. to be with Fox in his final weeks. Casavez declined to comment but Nichols said the two had “a special relationship” and even when they were in relationships with others, “were soul mates and had a special place in each other’s hearts.”

The above video is from GMCW's 2004 holiday concert, Men in Tights: A Pink Nutcracker. The song is "When You Meet an Angel" by Eric Lane Barnes. As you can see, Peter had a beautiful talent. The chorus has had many fine voices over its thirty years, but none finer than Peter's. At a memorial gathering on Friday at Foundry United Methodist Church, friends of his sang the same song for Peter's last capacity crowd. Too sad for words.

Joey DiGuglielmo writes here. Metro Weekly reports here. To hear more recordings of Peter, and even download his mobile app, check out his website.

Rick Santorum quotes as New Yorker cartoons

Jack Shepherd at BuzzFeed writes:

Here are a bunch of quotes from our future President paired with New Yorker cartoons. Some of them actually make a lot more sense this way.

Many more examples here.

(Hat tip: Joe Jervis)

It's not gay

Dan Savage, arbiter of all things gay, would definitly say this was not gay.  Though it's certianly pushing the border with bi.

Jon Stewart on Michele Bachmann's special interest

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Michele Bachmann has left the field of candidates seeking the Republican party nomination for president.  But as she leaves the field Jon Stewart takes note of her and Marcus's special interest in homosexuality.

Imagine there’s no Twitter

My column this week concerns a controversy that erupted over a New Year's Eve performance in Times Square:

Not since Sinéad O’Connor ripped up a photo of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live in 1992 have so many believers been so outraged by such a simple act.

I refer to the furor that erupted in the early hours of Jan. 1 over Cee Lo Green’s performance of John Lennon’s utopian anthem "Imagine" before the ball dropped at Times Square. The three-time Grammy winner had replaced the line "And no religion too" with "And all religion’s true." As they say in the ’hood, oh no he didn’t.

Green tried to fend off Lennon fans’ anger by tweeting, "Yo I meant no disrespect by changing the lyric guys! I was trying to say a world were u could believe what u wanted that’s all." Green may have been wishing away religious-based conflict the same as Lennon, though in a different way. Unfortunately for him, and ironically to say the least, he was messing with a sacred text....

Green’s lyric change on New Year’s Eve offended both religionists (who tend to consider only their own faith true) and non-religionists, and inadvertently provoked the quasi-religious fervor of fans for whom the late former Beatle is a martyr. It may offend pilgrims to the Strawberry Fields memorial in Central Park, but Lennon’s wealth and privilege were just as dissonant with the line "Imagine no possessions" as Green’s fur coat.

Read the whole thing here. (To see Green's blasphemous performance, go to 3:53 in this video clip.)

Variation on a theme

The above clip from 1969, featuring the great Jimi Hendrix recreating the Vietnam War with his guitar in what amounts to a variation on the Star-Spangled Banner, is an example of what would be banned by Indiana state senator Vaneta Becker if she gets her way. Among other things, her bill would impose the following on Indian schools:

The bill calls for schools to maintain audio recordings of all performances for two years and develop a procedure for dealing with complaints if a musician is alleged to have strayed from the approved lyrical or melodic guidelines.

Incidentally, the brilliant performance by Mr. Hendrix at Woodstock carries as an implication the notion that America's national anthem glorifies war. This widely-held belief is apparently based on two things: (A) the text describes a military battle, and (B) the phrase "the rocket's red glare" occurs on a high note. If you read the entire thing, however, you will see that the final stanza says "Oh thus be it ever when free men shall stand / Between their loved homes and the war's desolation." The song is glorifying not war itself but the courage of those who defend their country. The point is that sometimes we have to fight for our freedom. So I apparently disagree with Hendrix on that, though I strongly opposed the Vietnam War (which was a war not of self-defense but of colonialism). In any case, it would never occur to me to fine a budding latter-day Jimi Hendrix for exercising his or her First Amendment right to free speech. And Sen. Becker's bill, even if passed, cannot and will not stand.

Incidentally, he was so beautiful and gifted. What a damn shame he died so young.

(Hat tip: Joe Jervis)

Imagine there's no Cee Lo

The glorious-voiced Cee Lo Green sang John Lennon's "Imagine" last night at Times Square right before the ball drop that ushered in 2012. (He starts at 3:53 in the above video.) Given the total absurdity of the whole situation — including Lady Gaga helping Mayor Bloomberg cue the ball drop — I actually loved it when Cee Lo kicked it into high gear to sing "Imagine no possessions" while wearing a fur coat and gold watch and standing in the most ad-soaked spot on earth. But Friendly Atheist is upset with Cee Lo's alteration of one of the venerated Lennon's lines, "and no religion too," to "and all religion's true."

Cee Lo has already tweeted a response to the apparent furor:

Yo I meant no disrespect by changing the lyric guys! I was trying to say a world were u could believe what u wanted that’s all

Pardon me for asking a rude question, but if there's no religion, how can John Lennon's insipid lyrics be considered sacred? Yes, I said insipid. In your face!

On the other hand, it was perhaps inevitable that Mr. Green's own most famous lyrics would be thrown back at him, as someone named Wendy does in the comments below Friendly Atheist's post: "Fuck you, Cee Lo." Somehow, I don't think the controversy will hurt Cee Lo's sales.

As a bonus, the clip begins with Kathy Griffin in a bikini flirting over the phone with David Gergen, who tells her he is sure that Anderson Cooper (the not-quite-openly gay CNN anchor who co-hosted) that he could handle her. Griffin thoughtfully asks "Is there a Mrs. Gergen?" as she is flirting with Gergen. (By the way, watch how an off-camera staffer pushed Griffin's bra strap back onto her shoulder at 1:06. Kathy succeeded in making the folks at CNN nervous.)

(Incidentally, I'm sure the guy who posted this video will be forced to pull it, especially since he switched from CNN to NBC in the course of it. In that case, I'll look for a more official clip or clips.)

Update: Cee Lo's amusing tweet war with some angry fans (his posts have since been deleted) is preserved here.

Everyone can believe in cookies

The above headline was the caption on this photo from the Dec. 17th issue of The Economist. A sentiment I share.

(Hat tip: Jim Baxter)

The neighborhood at night, Christmas week 2011

(15th and Corcoran Streets NW on Dec. 27, 2011 at 6:15 pm. Luis Gomez Photos)

(Hat tip: Borderstan)

Kennedy Center Honors 2011 - tribute to Barbara Cook

Barbara Cook is now 84, still singing gloriously after more than half a century of live performance in the theater and on concert stages. Here is the tribute to her from the 2011 Kennedy Center Honors. Seated behind her in the presidential box is her gay son, actor Adam LeGrant.

Steam Room Stories

Nothing like a trip to the steam room to heat up a cold, low news day.  Steam Room Stories have a bunch of episodes on YouTube to amuse you.  This is one of the gayer offerings.

'The Birds' mystery solved?

Sarah Anne Hughes at WaPo reports on a scientific study that may explain a real-life incident that partly inspired Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 thriller The Birds:

Alfred Hitchcock's “The Birds” has been terrifying audiences for almost 50 years, thanks in part to a real-life event in 1961, when dying seabirds slammed into coastal California homes. (I’m pretty sure no one was actually pecked to near-death by hundreds of deranged gulls, like poor Tippi Hedren.)

The reason for the birds’ erratic behavior has remained a mystery — until now.

Sibel Bargu, one of the authors of a new study published in Nature Geoscience, told USA Today her team believes the birds were poisoned by toxin-producing algae. The researchers looked at the stomach contents of turtles and seabirds gathered in the affected area in 1961 and found toxins that cause nerve damage present in 79 percent of the plankton the creatures had eaten.

The short video below is a droll tribute to Hitchcock by a fan.

Holiday cheer in the bubble

(Photo by Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press/MCT)

My year-end column, which appears only in Boston's Bay Windows, was written two weeks ago as the holiday parties were at their peak:

I put on a red tie decorated with penguins and left for the White House holiday party on Dec. 15, happy to escape reality for a few hours.

After you pass two security checkpoints, you enter a White House adorned with pine garlands and 37 Christmas trees, with a theme of "Shine, Give, Share" to honor military servicemembers and their families. I suppose the President would be called weak on defense if he had chosen the traditional "Peace on earth." That, though, seems appropriate with the Iraq war ending, even as most Republican presidential candidates are competing to see who can sound the most hawkish on the Middle East.

The party-hardened White House staff efficiently restocked the food and drinks in the East Room and State Dining Room. I had roast beef and potato latkes, spiked eggnog, and a Christmas cookie shaped like the First Dog, Bo. Military officers were on hand to explain the decorations and furnishings.

I happily greeted a lesbian servicemember in full dress uniform and her wife. Then I found Mara Keisling of the National Center for Transgender Equality sitting in a red chair using her iPhone, on which she had a photo of her cute little dog Puffington. We talked about the problem of gay and trans immigrants being sexually assaulted in detention.

You can’t avoid shop talk at a White House reception. The struggles outside the fence intrude even if you leave your electronic devices at home. The military staff, for all their smiles and smart dress, remind us of the thousands who remain far from home during a season that calls us to gather scattered family members together.

While we waited for the First Couple to arrive....

Read the whole thing here.

Here's wishing everyone a happy and productive 2012.

(Photo by Eddie Gehman Kohan/Obama Foodorama)

Sedaris on other countries' silly Christmas traditions

John Aravosis shares a set of three videos of David Sedaris getting a great deal of comic mileage by simply describing the Dutch version of St. Nick. What he fails to mention is that, judging by the photos used in the video, the "six to eight black men" who traditionally accompany the Dutch version of St. Nick on his illicit house visits appear to be white guys in blackface. Okayyyyyy, so that takes us to America circa 1927. (Or Whoopie Goldberg and Ted Danson in 1993, but let's be charitable and try to forget that one.)

According to the Dutch, St. Nick is also the former bishop of Turkey, is much thinner than America's fat and jolly version, and might beat and kidnap a child rather than stuff its shoes with gifts. (Wouldn't you prefer a lump of coal?) Sedaris points out that, lest you find this version of Christmas distasteful, the Dutch sweeten the deal with legalized drugs and prostitution, so what's not to love about the Dutch? Actually, I'm not so sure about the answer to that breezy question. I just found out from my enterprising niece Missy that she and I are descended from someone named Nieuwenhuize from the southern Dutch town of Roosendaal. A Miss Nieuwenhuize sometime in the latter part of the 19th century married a guy named Janse. I've lost track of whether it was they or their progeny who emigrated to America, but I don't think it reasonable to flatter myself by assuming that the journey was motivated purely by adventurous spirits.

What I want to know is, were my Dutch ancestors fleeing something? Was it, for example, an arrest warrant, or (I speculate with Ron Paul's rants ringing in my ears) stifling government regulation? Clearly, I'll have to get Missy to continue her investigations. After all, the Dutch may seem peaceful and tolerant enough today, but let's remember that those bloody Boers in South Africa are descended from the Dutch; and Holland's colonial past (along with that of the Americans, British, Russians, and French) is enshrined by Stephen Sondheim in Pacific Overtures in his historically accurate "Please Hello." In short, if the Dutch Christmas tradition bears whiffs of racism, trust your nose.

The 2011 Kennedy Center Honorees at the White House

The 2011 Kennedy Center Honors will be broadcast tonight at 9 EST on CBS. As this video shows, the honorees — Yo Yo Ma, Meryl Streep, Barbara Cook, Neil Diamond and Sonny Rollins — were honored at the White House prior to the awards show, which was taped earlier in December.