Sunday was a beautiful day. Cool in the shade, warm in the sun, blue sky day, no humidity. I finished the chore of 'mowing' the big backyard with the trimmer, walked the dog, and then spent the rest of the day on the deck reading. My sister brought me a beautiful bouquet of flowers from her garden.
And my daughter brought me three magnificent donuts from the Voodoo Donuts in the city. Sorry no pictures unless you want to see the inside of my stomach or go here to view.
Saturday night we went out to dinner to the family owned Italian restaurant here and it was very good. I ordered shrimp and lobster ravioli. I don't know what the filling in the ravioli was but it was served in an excellent shrimp and lobster cream sauce. We went Saturday night because they aren't open on Sunday. The other part of my birthday celebration is going to see a movie next Friday. We have to wait til then because that's when Guardians of the Galaxy 3 opens.
Monday I emptied the overflowing truck of dead and fallen limbs and branches onto the already really big burn pile and torched it discovering today that I inadvertently celebrated Beltane. Now if I was considerably younger I'd celebrate fertility with some outdoor fucking (referencing Ms Moon's post).
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Well, once again, a few people have ruined something perfectly delightful for everyone. A school in Houston had a field trip planned to go see James and the Giant Peach, a beloved children's classic, at Main Street Theater but the trip was canceled when a parent spoke before the school board equating the cross gender casting (men playing the parts of women and women playing the parts of men as has happened in theater since the inception of theater) with drag queens as inappropriate for elementary school aged children. Not content to just keep their children home they forced the school to cancel the trip. Here's a link to scarrymommy.com that wrote about it.
Of course there are no drag queens in the production and what the actors are doing with their outsized costuming and make up is not drag which is a completely different art form but that doesn't stop these people who have their heads so far up their butts chasing their hatred/fear of the most victimized group of people in the country from ruining it for everybody, preventing other children, whose parents have no objection to the performance, from having a fun day out.
And now, of course, Texas is following suit of other ignorant republican states banning gender affirming care for people under 18 which will be applied across the board probably depriving cisgendered kids of puberty blockers and hormonal therapy for conditions that have nothing to do with trans and will no doubt have an impact on treatment of intersex children as well. The measure has already passed the state Senate.
And while I'm on the topic of human sexuality, there's a very interesting article in Scientific American (which was first published in 2015), Sex Redefined: The Idea of 2 Sexes Is Overly Simplified. It's long but goes into how a developing embryo develops into one sex or the other and all the intersex variations that occur naturally, DNA, even the cellular level; how women can have a Y chromosome and men can have two Xes, and the gonadal effects on the body and ends surmising that since there is not one single parameter that trumps all the others to define your sex, the best way to determine someone's sex/sexual identity is just to ask them.
Unfortunately our society and culture is bogged down in a science rejecting religious structure that god made men men and women women and there is no in-between combined with their fear of what they don't understand so we have legislatures outlawing the existence of and care for all those who are 'in-between'.
Aside from all that -- happy birthday! Glad you enjoyed the dining out.
ReplyDeleteI'm so angry about this anti-woke mob taking control of everything. Oof.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I need a detailed listing of which donuts you got so I can look at their pictures and drool. I'm glad you had a good time with family!
banana cream pie, old dirty bastard, and a portland cream. she better bring me voodoo doll, maple blazer blunt, and cock and balls next time.
DeleteWell that was an excellent lineup!
DeleteI have come to the conclusion that so many of these people are simply hateful. That's the only logical conclusion I can reach. They don't give a flying fuck about what the Bible says. They are simply full of hate and the LGBTQIA community is a handy target for it. I think that Ron DeSantis is probably the most hateful person I know.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you had a decent birthday. I'm glad. You deserve it, Ellen! And hey- you don't have to be a young thing to make love outdoors. But oh boy- the memories of those days...
I really don't understand the hate directed towards people who aren't hurting them in any fashion and that they justify it because of religion. the 'bible' is a fucking joke, written by men and translated from a translation of a translation of a translation and the words twisted and given meanings they didn't mean just to suit what they want the bible to say so they can claim the moral high ground to hate the people they hate or fear. religion is evil, christianity is particularly evil. and now these far right haters are legislating their hate. not just DeSantis, but Abbott and other governors as well. it makes me sick.
DeletePerhaps some never learned the history of men playing female roles. Women were not allowed to act back in the day. Can't say I blame those who cared for their safety considering the conditions and safety issues they were faced with. And still are in many instances. I wonder if a woman will ever be safe in a "man's world." There's always something to divide us, isn't there? "Action!" Waving at you from just up the road. Happy birthday, Ellen!
ReplyDeleteI don't think that's it. I think they just hate. and if they hate something no one else should be allowed to enjoy it. it reminds me of the brouhaha decades ago over the shirt in the girl's department of Walmart (I think it was Walmart) with the Margaret character from the Peanuts comic strip that said "one day a woman will be president". One woman complained because, you know, her religion told her women only belong in the home and the store pulled the shirts from inventory.
DeleteSounds like a lovely birthday to me. Saturday must have been bring your mother a donut; my daughter dropped a bag on my table with a satisfying thud. Two lovely donuts from a local, independent shop.
ReplyDeleteAll developing embryos start out as female meaning all men are trans.
ReplyDeletegotta love that. they hate trans, their heads must explode over intersex people.
DeleteHappy Birthday young thang!! Don't let the bastards get you down.
ReplyDelete37paddington: Happy birthday dear ellen. I’m glad it was a good one.
ReplyDeleteA very happy birthday, Ellen. That was obviously the bright spot of the week for you. The dystopia grows ever deeper and the discrimination and hatred multiplies and encompasses more segments of society, and irrationality and bigotry become the norm, sanctioned bigotry even. I saw a brief TV spot recently featuring DeSantis. I have no idea what appeals to people about that man. He seems less than ordinary to me, and decidedly uninteresting. And he could be president? Does the choice for the Republican party come down to him or Trump?
ReplyDeleteit's getting scary. they are determined to take us back to the 40s and 50s and forcing their religious viewpoints on everyone via legislation. DeSantis doesn't have a chance, but then we all thought neither did Trump. and if all that isn't bad enough their gun culture is killing more and more Americans every year and their solution is always more and easier access to guns. they cannot accept that that is the problem.
DeleteWell done, don't let the bastards spoil your day.
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday! Don't let the haters get you down. Of course that parent is insane, but to me, the real fault lies with the school. Why the heck did they cave to that kind of idiocy? They should tell the parent, "You can keep your kid home, if you'd like, but the trip goes ahead."
ReplyDeleteI agree. I'm so pissed that the school kowtowed to those parents but then those kinds of parents that want to force what they like and don't like on everyone else have been running for school boards and winning. that's just one of their approaches to install minority rule.
DeleteGlad you had a nice birthday, Ellen. How quickly these years are flying by. I agree with Steve - the school should not have given in to the haters.
ReplyDeleteSome folks cannot make it out of bed in the morning unless they find something to focus on hatefully. The problem is as you said, why does everyone have to do it their way?
ReplyDeleteEllen, i loved it that Texas (through you) is on my blogging list. I am sorry to say, that i might have poked my toe in Texas at El Paso, had a friend in San Antonio, but i always thought Texas was a bad-ass place, only in the last few years have i come to appreciate Texas, and seeing the flowers from the garden, and hearing (in my mind) you speak I know it is a good place too! Bad stuff happens anywhere, we here in the Yukon often feel it is a safe open-minded place, and lucky many of us live accordingly, do not lock doors etc, have rainbow crosswalks, but it is skewed, because with only 40.000 people in our Territory, per capita bad stuff is actually super high.
ReplyDeleteyes, bad things everywhere and bad people are everywhere. our governor and lt. governor have always been terrible people but they've taken their hatefulness and power lust to new highs in the last year or so determined to force everyone to bend to their will. it's getting scary.
Deleteloved should be love:) I love Texas!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you had a nice birthday. It's always good to celebrate that one day of the year as you start your new trip around the sun.
ReplyDeleteI have to say that I'm deeply troubled by the times we are living in. Even the Supreme Court is scaring me. I always wonder what's going to happen next.
I was feeling a little optimistic for awhile but not now. it's downright scary. what's next? going after birth control and no fault divorce because both give women power over their lives and about 70% of divorces are filed by women. and these people wonder why young women now aren't interested in dating or getting married.
DeleteI take it the haters have already had a go at Shakespeare ("Do we really need to bother with some ancient foreign guy, dead these last 350 years?") but perhaps he's safe because he's too difficult for their paltry, clockwork intellects. Lots of cross-dressing of course but just imagine how they'd foam at the mouth if they knew how Rosalind (dressed as a fella) teases poor old Orlando into behaving towards Rosalind the fella as if she/he were Rosalind the woman. Which, of course, he/she is! And one of the most luscious creatures in the whole canon. Causing me - a besotted Rosalind fan - to write a lengthy short story about two modern-day actors doing the play and slipping into and out of the acting roles with each other. See my collection of short stories, shortly to be published always assuming I'm not overtaken by old age. A distinct possibility since 87 is no age to be flirting with experimental fiction.
ReplyDelete