Thursday, May 25, 2006

Scribble, scribble, scribble!!

On the occasion of Lloyd Bentsen’s death, Libby Copeland looks at snappy comebacks.

When Bentsen told a baby-faced Dan Quayle, “Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy,” he was following in the tradition of expert quipsters Oscar Wilde, Dorothy Parker and Winston Churchill, whose lines are still remembered. Perfect put-downs transcend their settings. In politics, the successful put-down supersedes any issues of substance, just as on the playground. There are certain yo-momas from which no one can recover.

Ronald Reagan was good at these.

“There you go again,” he said in a 1980 debate with Jimmy Carter, accusing the president of misrepresenting his record. The line was accompanied by a smile and a patronizing shake of the head, and the audience laughed, sealing the deal. Reagan: 1, Carter: 0.

Those of us who rely on reason to vanquish our opponents find the perfect put-down infuriating. The put-down changes the terms of the debate; it replaces sober analysis with humor. It makes things personal. Anyone who was given a cutting nickname in seventh grade knows you can’t argue with the perfect put-down. It’s not a matter of what’s right; it’s a matter of perception, and you’re stuck with it now.

Two of my favorites:

• “Another damned, thick, square, book! Always scribble, scribble, scribble! Eh! Mr. Gibbon?” (William Henry, Duke of Gloucester, upon receiving the second volume from the author, 1781)

• “Every word she writes is a lie, including ‘and’ and ‘the.’” (Mary McCarthy on Lillian Hellman.)

X-Men 3: The Last Stand - Gay Colossus?

Guest post by Augusto

I am so excited about the big release tomorrow.  I can’t wait to see the third installment of my favorite comics based movie, X-Men.  I don’t read comic books but I love and watch pretty much every movie that is based on one. 

Because of this post (which was published at Queer Beacon and at aTypicalJoe) Alexander, from In Newsweekly, let us know about Prism Comics, which—among other great things—works like a Queer Beacon for comic books, talking about the gay content in the comic world.  If you are into comics, you must check out Prism. 

Alexander also let us know about this great interview with Danielle Bunten Berry (who was an accomplished game developer and a M-to-F transsexual—pic on the left), and that a character from X-Men supposedly came out of the closet a few months ago.  I can’t believe I was unaware of that.

The gay character is Colossus, who had a big cameo on X-Men 2, and I wonder whether he’ll show up on X-Men 3 as a gay man now (his character is listed in the credits - YAY!).  I can’t wait!  Colossus is played by Canadian hottie Daniel Cudmore (seen below rescuing kids on X-Men 2).  His superpowers?  Bitch can convert body tissue in a steel-like substance.  Again, he can convert body tissue in a steel-like substance.  Honestly, those comics people like to play serious mind-games with us gays.

Unfortunately, Colossus’s wiki only tells us about his many straight relationships.  I found quite a bit of discussion on the gay matter here, here, and here.  In the comics world there is even indication of a possible relationship between Wolverine (Logan, played by Hugh Jackman) and Colossus. 

Watch the trailer one more time.  My review for X-Men 3 will be out on Saturday morning!

(crossposted at QueerBeacon)

Speeding Up Your Blog (Revisited)

Guest post by Basil

Back in February of this year (2006, for those of you from the future), we covered a topic over at my little blog and at the Alliance about speeding up your blog. Lots of people found it useful ... which means perhaps I’m not totally useless. Despite what the ex- says.

It seems that, as useful as it appears to have been to some people, others didn’t see it, and have inquired about ways to speed up the loading of their blogs. We could point them to the original posts. Or we could write a brand-new post about the same thing.

Guess which way we chose? Yep, we’re doing a re-write. And calling it a new post. We’re plagerizing ourselves. But we’re not pressing charges.

Instead, we’re pressing forward with a discussion about speeding up your blog.

Read the rest of "Speeding Up Your Blog (Revisited)" in the extended entry.