Boozhy: a blog

Boozhy Musings: Everyone Should Have a French Teenager for a Lover

Brenner and I saw the french musical Love Songs this weekend.  I adored it.  Love Songs, like Moulin Rouge, Hedwig and Once did a wonderful job at maintaining the relevance of the musical in the present day.  Love Songs was an adorable and touching movie in the vein of Umbrella's of Cherbourg (a movie I also adored) and my take aways were this:

• Everyone should move to Paris
• Everyone should have a french teenager for a lover
• Everyone should have wildly unkempt hair and smoke skinny cigarettes while drolly singing a song about rain on Bastille Square
• Everyone deserves to date a Briton who smells of rain, the ocean and crepes with lemon
• Everyone needs a wildly colorful scarf as an accent

And by everyone I mean me especially.

Boozhy Musings: Is There a Statute of Limitations on Feeling Slighted?

While logging into Friendster just now, I suddenly remembered something that I should have taken exception to nearly four months ago.  And I am wondering, is there a Statute of Limitations on feeling slighted? 

A little over four months ago I lost my phone (yes the fifth in two years) and along with the phone I lost all of my phone numbers.  As a response I posted a bulletin on Friendster to be sent to all the friends in my network (over 80 at the time of posting) stating:

All, I lost my phone and all of my phone numbers, could you please e-mail me your phone number so that I can call you from time to time :-)

And as I logged onto Friendster this evening, I had the sudden realization.  Not ONE PERSON, responded to my bulletin!  Can you believe???!!!!?  Not ONE PERSON believed it important enough to send me a quick email with their phone number, in FOUR MONTHS. 

As soon as that realization dawned on me I was furious.  And now I'm chock full of righteous indignation, planning the horrible things I will say to my friends when I see them. But, is it too late?  Did the fact that I didn't realize I was slighted until just now, nearly four months later, deprive me of my right to be indignant? 

Boozhy Musings: The Good, The Sad and The Funny

The Good:  The giant, spinning, day-glo lit Pink Cupcake next door is FINALLY coming down.  According to James Wagner, the DoT in NYC have deemed it too ugly to grace the streets of our fair city to be in violation of city statutes. 

The Sad:  My pharmacy, "The Medicine Shoppe", which I have long loved because its name is olde timey and because they have all kinds of random odds and ends for sale like 2 liter beakers and skeletal models of the human foot, is closing.  "The Medicine Shoppe" was the only pharmacy that employed pharmacists who didn't even blink when confronted with questions about my many self-diagnosed ailments (see the "dreaded anti-fever" post) and had a recommendation for EVERYTHING (for the anti-fever they prescribed Iron and circulation medicines).  Well, the Medicine Shoppe is no longer, they went out of business.  And now I will be forced to go to the fancy pharmacy where they don't take kindly to the questions of hypochondriacs people of sensitive immunity.

The Funny:  During refurbishing of a building in my neighborhood, the above sign was uncovered.  It makes me giggle every time I walk by.  And every time I walk by, I say "MMMmmmm.  Seafood!  It's so YAMMY!"  which sends me into another fit of hysterics.

Boozhy Deaths: Rest in Peace, Phil

God our Father, Your power brings us to birth. Your providence guides our lives and by your command we return to dust.

Lord, those who die, still live in Your presence, their lives change but do not end. I pray in hope for Phil and for all the dead known to You alone.

In company with Christ, who died and now lives, may Phil rejoice in Your kingdom, where all our tears are wiped away.

Unite us together again in one family, to sing Your praise forever and ever.  Amen

Boozhy Politics: They OLD, Yo!

CQ's annual breakdown of Congress notes that Congress is looking less and less like an "Old Boys Club" with a record number of women, blacks and hispanics serving our nation.  And while it's not an old "boys" club per se, it is certainly "old".  Both House and Senate have set new "average age" records. 

Although polls tend to show that social issues like gay marriage and a repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" are generally supported by the population, we continue to be astounded that Congress makes little effort to extend us (gays) equal civil rights.  With half a dozen octogenarians in the Senate and 80+ House members over the age of 65, it's not that surprising.  They belong to a past generation, one which believed the American Dream was an us vs. them battle (i.e. they deserve it, we don't).   

As the complexion of Congress changes, as new electorates more closely resemble our demographic, we can hold out hope that laws will begin to reflect the (and by our I mean the larger population) current collective and not that of 1950.

Boozhy Musings: An Open Letter to Jesus

Dear Baby Jesus,

First, I just want to say Happy Ash Wednesday.  I did as you have prescribed and went to mass to be blessed with palm ashes and olive oil.  The priest did as you required by anointing my forehead with the ashes and oil in the shape of a cross and repeating "Remember that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return."  At which point  I said a prayer for peace, for our soldiers in Iraq, for my family and for my soul, made a sign of the cross turned and walked out of St. Xavier.

The second I stepped out of the door, I looked at my reflection in a car window and immediately wiped the ashes from my forehead.  I KNOW that I'm supposed to leave them until after sundown, but I couldn't.  And I wanted to explain to you that I didn't remove them because I was embarrassed, or a sinner.  I removed them because I am an aesthete.  You see, Baby Jesus, the priests, in their haste always do a very sloppy job of anointing my forehead.  In fact, this year the cross looked more like a swastika (you understand why I couldn't go around with a swastika on my forehead, surely)!  Plus, the clumpy ashes just don't look nice, even when applied carefully.  And, because the ashes are very oily, they may very well cause me to break out,although I've never left them on long enough to determine whether or not this would be true.  But just in case.

Anyway, I just wanted to write a quick note to you, saying thank you for being my God and thank you for dying for my sins.  And even though I wiped off the ashes, I still love you and I did it for reasons that have no bearing on my belief in you and yours. 

XO 

Boozhy Musings: RIP AI

I'm done with American Idol.  They've ruined it.  It has been transformed from a talent show to an over produced reality program, complete with storylines that celebrate cruelty and blatantly manipulate viewer emotions.  After last nights performances it is clear that they did not choose the 12 best amateur or semi-amateur male singers in the Country (or even the 12 best performers), they chose storylines and characters: a pretty boy whose twin sister was brought to Hollywood before being cut unceremoniously (and for dramatic effect), the weird looking fat kid who is really funny, the cheesey womanizer... 

And it doesn't stop there.  While the contestants are the obvious protagonists in this reality tale, the judges and non-talent personalities have been cast as well.  Simon is clearly the antagonist, Paula has been spun as full on crazy for effect, Randy the straight one and Ryan the obnoxious kid brother. 

It's a shame.  The premise of scouring the nation for the best diamond in the rough and propelling him/her to super stardom so very encapsulates the American Dream...  Too bad this show no longer comes close to realizing that dream.  RIP A.I. 

Boozhy Holidays: The Day After Black Wednesday

Sully, we j'adore both you and Aaron, but this post went way too far.  As if OUR lives aren't good.  Puh-lease.  I had a perfectly disagreeable Valen-times Dinner bickering with my non-sexual common law husband who I am not in love with.  My life is GOOD, damnit.

Boozhy Ailments: Anti-Fever

I take my temperature regularly to ensure that I do not have a fever.  I have always done this.  Not, because I am a hypo-chondriac, but because if I have a fever I must take action immediately so that my fever does not turn into pneumonia, or beubonic plague or polio or something.

WELL, it just so happens that lately my temperature has been dropping below 98.6.  In FACT, my temperature just this morning was 96.9 degrees.  I have perused all of the medical journals online and cannot find this temperature as indicative of any illness.  BUT, it stands to reason that just as a temperature span of 1.7 degrees on the postive side (a temperature of 100.3) is indicative of fever; a temperature span of 1.7 degrees to the negative is indicative of an anti-fever.  And anti-fever's are probably JUST as dangerous. 

I don't have any symptoms yet, but I will be keeping you informed...

Boozhy Musings: "Why I Blog" or "Why Boozhy is the Future of Politics"

Micah Sifry of Personal Democracy Forum pens an extremely interesting piece re: the impact of blogging, how the left is winning the online war and how blogging benefits the ordinary person...

"...there is one way in which Web 2.0...does appear to work to the benefit of...the ordinary person...And that is because it shifts power away from the center of organizations out to the edges. Millions of us now can speak on a much more level playing field than anything that has ever existed before. By definition that is bad for elites and insiders. Which can't be good news for the incumbent party in Washington.

The piece is well researched and well written and is worth a read.  It seems that blogging and bloggers may allow for the realization of a true populist agenda in the United States.  Hooray!