Solzhenitsyn died at age 89.  Here's the AP obituary. I first read his novel “A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” when I was a 17 year old high school senior and it rocked my world.  I had no clue about the larger connection to the Gulag and the Soviet Union or any other […]

A water bottle.  At REI (shhh!).  Yes.  And two travel mugs.  For more money than I care to admit.  I coveted this bottle.  Two of my coworkers have this bottle … it is made of stainless steel and is pretty tough.  It has no nasty plastic additives and will greatly minimize my reliance on bottled water and […]

Got my tennies laced up and my favorite tee shirt ready to go … I signed up to walk a 5K to help raise funds for the Educational Initiative which provides modest scholarships to kids “aging out” of various human service systems — foster care, mental health, juvenile justice, etc.  The scholarships most often go […]

Some things you might have missed. Allegheny County Council might pass a countywide anti-discrimination bill that protects us based on sexual orientation and gender identity.  The legislation would establish a county Human Relations Commission.  I know some folks who have been working on this.  It is good news for the region.  Without dragging out the […]

I belong to a community email list, identified as a Northside resource but focused mostly on the War Streets and surrounding communities.  It is riotous group filled with a small core of virulently anti-homeless agitators.  Not those who agitate to end homelessness, but to end the homeless. I am only slightly exaggerating.  I was at […]

This is from a Joel Stein in Sunday's Post-Gazette. Does it work for you? He's effete He's well-dressed. He eats arugula — which he buys at Whole Foods. He mocks those who use guns. He is, as we mentioned, quite thin. He may only be half-black, but he's three-quarters gay.   Eh. 

What a fun, fun movie.  With a lovely gay twist.  I must admit I still find Colin Firth very fetching.  And criticism of Pierce Brosnan's singing is unwarranted.  It is campy as can be and he's a delight!  Sure, they could have found a hottie who could truly sing (think Ewan McGregor at age 50), […]

I read in the PG that Snickers has pulled an ad running in Britain which features Mr. T telling those silly Brits to “Get Some Nuts.”  In this one particular ad, Mr. T confronts a speed walker and makes him run like a man by pelting him with Snickers bars.  The Human Rights Campaign Foundation […]