Interlude:

Yesterday, Rob and I went down to the Quad to see Boys Life Four, which is a series of four short gay films. Our friend Patty made a brief appearance in one of them (the last one . . . her friend either produced or directed it, I can’t remember which), and she sent around an email asking people to go on the opening weekend to support it.

Waiting in line to get in, I immediately noticed two things about the other members of the audience. The first was that there were no women present, only one person I first took for a woman and quickly recognized as a particularly lovely transsexual. No, they were all gay men, and (this was the second thing I noticed) they were the biggest collection of fashion don’ts I have seen since I went to the Ringling Museum of the Circus. I have never seen frumpier male homosexuals in all of my days, and may I just mention, your honor, if that was indeed you, that whatever perks being a former mayor offers, the ability to get away with that shirt is not one of them?

We had a happier time afterward, when we walked down to the Duplex to see our friend Natalie Douglas’s cabaret act. She is so fabulous and an amazing singer: there were notes she hit with such power and emotion that she literally sent chills up and down my spine. Go and see her. You must. Yes, yes . . . go. (And fear not: everyone there was dressed appropriately!)

So it was a day of seeing people we love perform, on stage and screen. That will contrast nicely with the upcoming week I will spend glued to my computer screen. And if there is any glue left, I need to fix my dog refrigerator magnet, whose leg broke off when it fell on the floor.