Mirror, mirror 1
Panel on social media at NLGJA 0
Travel post and more to follow, once we get back to the coming storm.
Weather frenzy of the century 1
We’ll be heading back to Manhattan tomorrow instead of going to the Jersey house. I didn’t want to risk driving into a hurricane on Sunday. Meanwhile, some pix from the City of Brotherly Love.
God sends hurricane to New York as encore, wants people’s vote on marriage 1
As if Tuesday’s earthquake devastation wasn’t enough punishment for gay marriage, now God is sending a tidal wave . . . or a storm surge or something the religious extremists will claim is payback for the homo-love.
We’re headed for Philly late this afternoon. Hopefully we’ll be driving back and not taking a boat.
From the Wall St. Journal:
MARGARETVILLE, N.Y. — New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection is lowering the water level in some of its upstate reservoirs to make more room for storm runoff as Hurricane Irene approaches.
Deputy Commissioner Paul Rush says the city has increased water release rates from the Neversink and Pepacton reservoirs in Delaware and Sullivan counties.
Rush said releasing more water ahead of the storm will help minimize any potential flooding in the surrounding communities, without depleting the drinking water supply of nine million New York City residents. The storm is expected to arrive in New York on Sunday.
Bloomberg excludes witch doctors, other religious leaders from 9/11 anniversary 0
Jesus not invited to speak, God not amused
I love Mayor Mike, even if giving himself a third term was irksome. I don’t think we’d have marriage equality without his lobbying, and this latest brings a smile to my face: he’s leaving out religious figures from the upcoming 9/11 anniversary and memorial. They are, of course, outraged.
Some New York politicians and religious leaders are criticizing Mayor Michael Bloomberg for not offering clergy members a role in the high-profile ceremonies marking 10 years since the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, The Wall Street Journal reported.
“This is America, and to have a memorial service where there’s no prayer, this appears to be insanity to me,” said Rudy Washington, a former deputy mayor under Rudolph Giuliani. “I feel like America has lost its way.”
A spokewoman from Bloomberg’s office told The Journal that the focus, as in past years, will be on the family members of the fallen. Rabbi Joseph Potasnik told the paper he understood the mayor’s decision, saying, “I don’t know how to make it possible for everyone to have a place at the table.”
‘Mo’ Bubble Butt’ star loses Miami-Dade teaching job 0
CNN doesn’t have a problem with Shawn Loftis’s big, gay porn career. Should Miami-Dade County Public Schools?
Using the nom de porn Collin O’Neal, he won awards for virtuoso performances in hard-core films such as Mo’ Bubble Butt, Humping Iron, and Desperate Husbands. In 2005, Miami Beach resident Loftis started Collin O’Neal Productions. His film series, “World of Men,” was based on a unique concept: He’d travel to exotic — but not necessarily sexy — locales such as Lebanon and Serbia. Between scenes of Loftis cavorting with local hunks, he’d give viewers tours of famous monuments and settings, complete with historical context.
[SNIP]But in spring 2010, Loftis decided to dump porn to pursue his real passion: teaching. That March, he sold “World of Men” to a Canadian company, he says. And in April, he began substitute teaching in local public schools. He worked at Miami Beach High — where “they just loved me to death,” he says — Nautilus Middle, Edison Middle, and Fienberg-Fisher K-8.
This past January, Loftis was informed he had been suspended. Another employee had told Nautilus principal Allyn Bernstein, she wrote, that Loftis “had his own personal gay website.” When administrators Googled his “industry name,” they found “sexually explicit pictures” of — if our own search is any indication — the math sub engaging in nude acrobatics with buff, furry men.
Maggie Report a tired copy of tired Drudge Report 0
From the genius of Maggie Gallagher
Who knew? I’m going to assume from the archives that this site has only been up since June, and I have to wonder what is going on in the disintegrating mind of Maggie Gallagher. Her ‘Maggie Report’ is a direct ripoff of the Drudge Report (with ongoing reports that Matt Drudge died several years ago, a la the “Paul McCartney is dead” meme from my childhood).
Does anyone still read the Drudge Report? And why? And will anyone bother with a replica of a site that stopped being interesting, either in design or content, a long, long time ago?
I have to say I just don’t get it.
NYC’s Boathouse restaurant sold tap water for $8 a bottle 0
This is why we always say tap water is fine when a waiter asks: you’re probably going to get it anyway.
Striking workers from Central Park’s Boathouse restaurant are letting the public know that those among them stupid enough to pay $8 for a bottle of “premium” water are getting it from the sink.
People have been selling packaged New York City tap water for years…but charging $8-a-pop per bottle for the champagne of municipal waters? That’s a little rich for our blood. And yet that is exactly what the striking workers at the Central Park Boathouse say that operator Dean Poll has had them charge for bottles of filtered tap water for years.
Gatecrasher noted this weekend that the striking employees outside the Boathouse were handing out bottles of “REAL and FREE Bottled Spring Water” near the waterfront restaurant as part of their protest. On the bottles? Their “Dump Dean” slogan along with the claim that he “cheats his employees and the taxpayers of New York City.”
