On the Rag, Vol. 223

A weekly look at what's making news in the free gay rags:

Frontiers has your guide to the desert. Read HERE.

Sensitif puts Christophe out front. Nuff said. Online edition HERE.

Get Out! Weekly features gender bender Marti Gould Cummings, who says he was the flamboyant boy on the playground who ran around, belting show tunes at the top of his lungs. (I don't doubt it!) Read HERE.

Metro Weekly: While Romney's secured some LGBT support, most seem well aware of what Obama has delivered – and what could disappear. Read HERE.

The Man Who Fell to Earth

Felix Baumgartner -- who set a world record falling or something -- looks awfully hot in his leather bomber jacket outside the BBC. From HERE.

Aimee Mann Does Barry Manilow

Aimee Mann rocked it like a hurricane in Westchester County, N.Y., on Halloween night, refurbishing Barry Manilow's "Mandy" into a disaster-ous delight!

Why One Gay Man Is Voting for Romney (or How I Wound Up at the Soup Nazi)

For those who wonder why a gay person would ever vote Republican, this might interest you a bit. Normally I do not even allow myself to get into this situation, but I was at a friend's apartment getting ready for work today -- still no power at my place-- so I figured the least I could do was hear him out since he let me use his bathroom. (I might have been extra calm too, because I had just taken a hot bath. He's European so doesn't have a shower.) A little background: The guy is the boyfriend of Michael's best friend, is a recently naturalized American (Russian born) and is a surgeon. He said all of the negatives about Mitt Romney are things that are unlikely to actually happen -- the constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage, the women stuff, etc. -- but that the negatives about Obama -- namely taking more of his money -- is definitely going to happen. "Why would I vote for someone who wants to take more of my money?" Blames the Affordable Care Act for chipping away at doctors' salaries, says Obamacare is a disaster -- didn't take into consideration the fact that many of those 44 million uninsured people "don't want" health insurance; made no provision for correcting malpractice issues; no provision for actually cutting the cost of healthcare; no provision for training more physicians to handle all of these "new" patients (and so on). As for women, he said he didn't exactly see that many of them outraged or protesting over this assault on Roe v. Wade, contraception, etc. -- Romney's popularity with women actually went up after the debates -- so why should he get worked up about it? I had all my Democratic talking points handy -- how 0% of those people in the 44 million who say they "don't want" health insurance say they would NOT WANT to be treated if they were hurt, so shouldn't they HAVE to pay into the system too?; talked about the huge protests of Governor Bob McDonnell in Virginia, how the appointment of SCOTUS justices will definitely affect abortion rights, etc. -- but he was completely unswayed. (I may not agree with voting entirely based on your wallet, but if you're going to do t, own it. And don't deny the other ramifications of your actions.) I had to leave for work at that point, so I exited and forgot to put on my coat.despite the fact it's 40-something degrees out  (I was plenty hot already.) En route to the office, I ended up stopping at the Soup Nazi, which suddenly seemed like a far less contentious environment for me to be in ...

The soup looked fantastic, but I couldn't resist a $10 lobster roll!!!!

P.S.

 

I'd forward him this moving video by actress Tracy Nelson about Obamacare only I don't think it would make any difference.

Sniff Test

I see my local supermarket is restocking.

WeHo Halloween

The famed Village Halloween Parade may have been canceled -- for now -- but the boys in West Hollywood were out in full force. My friend Danny sent me a dozen hotties ... see 'em all HERE.

And if that's not enough for you, Damiana and her gal pal Barbara Cathy have a report from the All Hallow's Scream parade. Trust me, it's a scream!

Bait and (Light) Switch

 Powerless being the operative word. Read HERE.

'Shark' Attack

 Don't ask me why -- perhaps I was becoming delirious from hypothermia when Larry got up to eat -- but I was thinking in bed this morning how strange it was that people thought Fonzie jumping over a shark was the point where "Happy Days" went south, but nobody had a problem with a suspenders-clad alien from the planet Ork -- with a Boulder accent -- dropping by Milwaukee and hanging out with a bunch of 35-year-old high school students the season before?

Serta Purrfect Sleeper

  Fourth night without power/heat/hot water. We were gonna have a luxe place to ourselves in the city to crash tonight, but now it seems our friends might not be going to their other place upstate because they can't get gas. (Obama's fault. More on that later.) I'd have frozen to death by now without Larry, who despite being the brattiest cat I have ever owned has surprisingly risen to the occasion, sleeping on my chest and saving me from involuntary cryogenic preservation. I'm certain his motives were purely selfless  ...

Now They're Just F**king With Me

I know my Lasik-ed vision is a little off, but are those first two symbols even letters?

Morning Wood

Video and heat-generating nudie GIFs HERE.

Page 1 Consider (11/02)

 Wow. The so-called "forgotten borough" -- Staten Island -- made it above the fold of the Los Angeles Times. Read HERE.

The Day After Halloween

I'm not sure when I became such a curmudgeon about adults dressing up for Halloween. With the exception of a party I went to in 2002 with my late friend Larry (above),  I haven't dressed up routinely since I was about 22. 

Still, I probably would have gotten a kick out of hanging out with Debbie Harry and Bette Midler yesterday at the New York Restoration Project party ...

even if they weren't nearly as adorable as my niece and nephew, Ally and AJ ...

who were the scariest trick-or-treaters in all of the Valley of the Sun!