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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Gotham Dispatch

Gotham Dispatch

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So I’m in NYC for my sister and sister-in-law’s Big Fat Gay Wedding. They’ve been together for 15 years — almost as long as my husband and me. We traveled up together from Florida so they could finally make it official.

And while we were here yesterday, a judge in Monroe County (pronounced MON-roe) in the Florida Keys ruled against the state’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. Well, it’s too soon to plan a Key West wedding anyway; Governor Voldemort’s AG Pam Bondi (Litigious Barbie) filed an appeal.

But it looks like the anti-gay graffiti that currently defaces Florida’s constitution will eventually be removed. Huzzah!

What are you up to today? Please feel free to discuss whatever.

Reader Interactions

77Comments

  2. 2.

    HinTN

    While you are in the area of Zabar’s you gotta go to the Hayden Planetarium, if only to hear Maya Angelou narrate the Big Bang.

  3. 3.

    satby

    Big congratulations to your sister and sis-in-law! Enjoy yourself in NYC too!

    I’m working all day, and then coming home to cut 100 guest size bars of soap for a bridal shower I’m making the favors for. Then, if I have time, I have to start boxing and tying the tags on. I work all day tomorrow too, returning to a low wage service job after 20 years of corporate life reminds me of why I worked so damn hard to get a better job all those years ago. I come home wiped out after 8 hours on my feet.

  4. 4.

    Poopyman

    Working, which sucks. But then, eating is something I’ve grown accustomed to, and the pay is good. Nothing like a year of joblessness to remind you of what a job is for.

    But the next 30 days are going to be hellish.

  6. 6.

    PurpleGirl

    Betty — best wishes to your sister and her spouse. May they love another 15 years and more.

    OT: Google honors Nelson Mandela today on what would have been a 90-something birthday. The doodle involves a trail through a number of quotes from him on life. It’s very good and shows why, even though he was a “terrorist” we still saluted and loved him for his life’s philosophy.

  7. 7.

    Schlemizel

    @satby:
    You have to have soap for a shower!

    BETTY:
    And best wishes to the happy couple.

    @PurpleGirl:
    I like to remind people that St. Ronnie called Mandela a terrorist while he funded and armed Osama Bin Laden

  12. 12.

    Mustang Bobby

    Mazel tov to the happy couple!

    Of course it would be the Conch Republic that would make marriage equality legal. If I had a boyfriend we’d drive down next week and get married and honeymoon on Sombrero Beach in Marathon.

    The Keys are only an hour from my house, but what a difference the 18-mile stretch of highway between Florida City and Key Largo makes.

  13. 13.

    the Conster

    @Betty Cracker:

    I’ve been wondering about rings for two wives – is there a new tradition around engagement rings, wedding bands, etc? I should know this being from MA, but I know more men SS couples. Seems to me SSM provides the wedding industrial complex with unclaimed territory to explore .

  14. 14.

    Emma

    @the Conster: You know all those conservative florists, bakeries, etc. who are screaming about “having to serve gays”? In five years they’ll be kicking their asses as they see the less stupid of their brethren rake it in. It’s a huge market and it hasn’t even gotten started yet, really.

  15. 15.

    Randy P

    @the Conster: I’ve heard of “commitment rings” but I’m embarrassed to say that I don’t know if it is an engagement or wedding tradition.

  16. 16.

    Betty Cracker

    @the Conster: SIL and sis didn’t do engagement rings, but they had a beautiful and unique wedding ring set made by an artist. I know several SS couples who’ve married, and I don’t think any have had engagement rings.

    They’re all 40-somethings though; maybe younger folks would have engagement rings? I dunno. But if I were a jeweler, I’d be working diligently to popularize gay engagement rings!

  17. 17.

    NotMax

    Movie alert for one of the all-time greats.

    TCM, Saturday, July 19, 2 a.m. Eastern. Grand Illusion, which it is likely a goodly number here have already seen, but may wish to savor again.

    The uniforms, the weapons and the face of the enemy may change, yet Renoir’s film remains as sharp and as apt as the day it was released over 75 years ago.

    Good as Erich von Stoheim was in the much later Sunset Boulevard, his performance is even better in this.

    A taste.

  19. 19.

    Randy P

    So Betty, have you and the kid done anything interesting and non-touristy in the Big Apple? And if you’ve stuck to the tourist mainstream, what was your favorite?

    In Germany I ran into a German guidebook called “New York in 24 hours”. That seems to me… impossible. But on the other hand I did Berlin in 4 hours.

  20. 20.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Well, turning 56 today. Some would celebrate tho I haven’t in decades and seeing as last night I said “Goodbye” to a very dear friend makes it even less so. Rita was… 56 when she died, so if I make it to 57 maybe I’ll tip back one to her then.

    From diagnosis of cancer, to chemo, to dead in 4 months, it was actually the chemo that killed her. I am not kidding when I say at least a thousand people were there last night and that is just from this side of the river. I wonder how many will show for the Illinois funeral? I last saw her about 3 weeks ago when the wife and I went up to make a paella for her. Rita was a life long Spanish teacher and inveterate traveler to Spain, and she dearly loved paella. Unfortunately it was not a “good” day for her and she puked it up after eating only a little.

    My last words to her were, “See you soon.” which obviously enuf didn’t work out but we all thought we had at least another year before death was a worry. My second to last words to her were, “I love you.”

    I guess I’ll hang my hat on that and get on with my day.

    Ya’ll play nice now.

  21. 21.

    gogol's wife

    Congratulations to your sister and sister-in-law. It’s nice to see some good news for a change.

  22. 22.

    Betty Cracker

    @Randy P: Mostly touristy stuff. SIL is from NYC and has family here, so we’ve been squired around by natives.

    My favorite activity so far is one of our own making: Pizza Quest. We’re trying slices all over the place and rating them. I’m gonna have to go on a diet when I get back home!

  26. 26.

    WereBear

    Congrats to the happy couple!

    There’s some more tourism dollars that Florida weeps at losing… and NYC gets the benefit of.

  29. 29.

    pamelabrown53

    @Betty Cracker: My partner and I have been together for over 18 and a half years. About 17 years ago, we took a really ugly diamond dinner ring given to my partner in exchange for medical care (she’s a retired physician) and designed 2 bands utilizing the diamonds. When we get married, we’ll already have our rings.

    Congratulations to your sister and her spouse on their new journey!

  30. 30.

    gene108

    @Betty Cracker:

    My favorite activity so far is one of our own making: Pizza Quest.

    A good, and relatively inexpensive way to sample New York cuisine.

    Mostly touristy stuff.

    If you want to do real non-toursity stuff, I’m sure you can offer to do the day-to-day stuff like grocery shopping, laundry, picking kids up from daycare, etc.

  33. 33.

    R-Jud

    Today is the last day of Bean’s first year of school. Unfortunately, around 2 a.m. I woke to the sound of her puking. Being a considerate sickie, she had managed to stagger to the toilet. We had a long night in there.

    Today she has been mostly lying around the house, moaning out the names of her teacher or her best friend Sophie. Poor little mite.

  34. 34.

    JPL

    @OzarkHillbilly: I share the same date but I’m older than you are. Rather than the google/doodle celebrating Mandela, I have a google/doodle celebrating my day. I find it odd and I don’t like it.

    Sorry that you lost your friend.

  35. 35.

    Mike in NC

    Key West is one of those places, like Seattle and Portland, that I badly want to visit some day.

  41. 41.

    Suffern ACE

    @Betty Cracker: regarding your pizza quest, if you are limiting yourself to ‘by-the-slice’ places, I hope you can try NY Pizza Suprema by Madison Square Garden. Then you can stop trying to find better slices.

  43. 43.

    Gin & Tonic

    A bit of gallows humor for the morning. Igor Strelkov, the Russian spec ops agent in charge of the “Donetsk People’s Republic,” who took credit yesterday for shooting down a plane, today is quoted in “Russkaya Vesna” (Russian Spring) as saying that (most of) the passengers on MH 17 had been dead for days. Link is in Russian, sorry. Google Translate doesn’t make his word salad any less sensible, though.

  47. 47.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Paul in KY: I can imagine 3 variations: MONN roe (stress on the first syllable), mun ROE (stress on the second), or MONN ROE (both stressed).

    ETA: I think I say “Marilyn mun ROE” but “MONN ROE Doctrine.”

  48. 48.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Suffern ACE: I was vaguely remembering a similar theory about the USS Vincennes incident. I remember some people suggesting that since the bodies being recovered from the water were naked, the whole thing must have been some weird scam cooked up by the Iranians.

  49. 49.

    Paul in KY

    @Mustang Bobby: Have you taken the back way to Key Largo? Once you get below Florida City, you take a left & tootle around on much less traveled roads, before it merges back in with main road at Key Largo?

  50. 50.

    Davis X. Machina

    Josh Marshall:

    Find extremists and hot-heads of the lowest common denominator variety, seed them with weaponry only a few militaries in the world possess…

    In other words, Contras, with more and better hardware. Some days, Putin reminds me of no one more than he reminds me of Reagan.

    That whole ‘to defeat your enemy you have to become your enemy’ thing runs in both directions…

  51. 51.

    Skerry

    @Betty Cracker: A friend’s daughter was recently engaged. She wanted an engagement ring, but her wife-to-be didn’t want one. Both women are in their 20s.

    ETA:Congrats to your family. You were due for some good times.

  52. 52.

    Botsplainer

    @Mike in NC:

    Key West is a lot of fun, particularly at night when the fucking cruise ships leave.

    We go there at least once every 12-18 months. Food and drink prices are reasonable, food is good, service great and we know all the good spots.

  54. 54.

    MomSense

    Congratulations to the happy couple!

    Have some guests visiting from Japan and apparently 10 year old boys pretty much like the same things! So fun to see them together. Hiked a mountain yesterday, swam in the ocean, ate American cook out food, and watched anime (they both have the same favorite show!). Today will be bike riding, playground, a trip to the beach, and dinner at a local clam shack that also serves other things since they both won’t eat clams.

    And not sure what is up with the weather but the period of horrible heat and humidity was followed by massive thunderstorms and now the polar vortex summer edition turns out to be fantastic. Temps are in the low 70s without the horrible humidity.

  56. 56.

    JCT

    @Suffern ACE: Hah! I was going to post the exact same suggestion – Pizza Suprema is the only way to go around MSG. Now Brooklyn or the Bronx might provoke some arguing.

    And for bagels down there – “Best Bagel and Coffee” – on West 35th between 7th and 8th,
    Crap, now I’m really hungry.

  57. 57.

    Bystander

    @gene108: @gene108: Better still, Betty, come by our apartment up in Libbyland (UWS). We’ll take you on a tour of the place and then hand you a shopping list along with the dry cleaning to drop off. If that’s not non-touristy fun, I don’t know what is.

  58. 58.

    Gordon, the Big Express Engine

    Betty- go check out the High Line. There is a great beer garden under the Standard hotel at the south end and a nice wine bar and food stand area up on the park level near that end as well. Can’t think of another urban park like it.

    http://www.thehighline.org

  62. 62.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Paul in KY: They’re pretty close, I admit. But think of the word “condo.” I pronounce that CON doh: much more weight on CON than on doh. Then think of Don Ho. I pronounce that DON HO. Two syllables of equal weight. I think “Monroe” can be pronounced either way, like condo or like Don Ho. YMMV.

  63. 63.

    Gin & Tonic

    Now RT’s London correspondent has resigned in protest.

    A Russia Today reporter based in London has resigned with immediate effect in protest at the station’s coverage of yesterday’s plane crash in Ukraine.

    Sara Firth had worked at Russia Today for five years, joining the Russian government-funded station in Moscow straight after doing an MA in journalism at City University in London. She has since been posted in London.

    Firth described the Malaysia Airlines flight crash coverage as “the straw that broke the camel’s back for me” and handed in her resignation this morning.

    RT was also quoting a mysterious unnamed “Spanish air traffic controller” reportedly working at some airport in Ukraine, saying this was a Ukrainian military shootdown (also posted here by our own RT stringer, BiP.) The Spanish Embassy in Ukraine has unequivocally denied the existence of any such person, and his Twitter account disappeared overnight.

  66. 66.

    Suffern ACE

    @Gin & Tonic: Yes. But our government lied before and therefore and there isn’t any reason why we wouldn’t think it is trying to create a Maine or Lusitania to prep us for the upcoming invasion of Vladivostock.

  69. 69.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Origuy: Thanks, but it appears you missed yesterday’s memo. The Interpreter is untrustworthy, since it’s run by The Institute for Modern Russia, which was funded years ago by the Herzen Foundation, which is a CIA front. RT and ITAR are the only unbiased sources.

  71. 71.

    Cervantes

    @Gin & Tonic: The Institute of Modern Russia is funded by the son of one of Putin’s oligarchic opponents — which fact, by itself, makes The Interpreter no more or less reliable than RT, etc., of course.

  72. 72.

    Origuy

    @Gin & Tonic: I see, of course. Is that why a certain someone never actually links to his sources; they are so trustworthy that it’s not necessary?

  74. 74.

    jayboat

    @Mike in NC:
    Mike, Key West is a blast any day of the year. If you really want to do it right, their 2 biggest weeks are Fantasy Fest (the week leading up to Halloween) and the World Championship Offshore Powerboat Races (2nd week of Nov).

    Here’s a gallery from Fantasy Fest a couple years ago. (obviously nsfw)

  75. 75.

    Ken

    @Suffern ACE: You forget, control of Vladivostok means control of the Arctic Ocean oilfields. The Republican party may be denying global warming, but the Pentagon and the oil companies aren’t. And chemtrails.

    (I don’t know why chemtrails, but it seems a requirement of the conspiracy genre and I am nothing if not a slave to tropes.)

  76. 76.

    J R in WV

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    From one Hillbilly to another: I’m so sorry for your loss. I won’t wish you a happy birthday, way too late for that. Maybe next year?

    We used to have big birthday parties, esp in the spring for 3 friends and the Mrs who were all born within a couple of days, but not lately.

    Mrs and I usually have a nicer dinner and some wine for either birthday now, which is low key but nice.

    Take care!

    JR

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