When I start up my internet at home, it defaults to the Netscape homepage. This is different from my own homepage (which I DO know how to re-set, thanks) and it's covered with all sorts of headlines, including the one about Sulu. So I totally missed the more interesting Sheryl Swoopes coming out story.

A big news period here what with the ChiWhiSox winning the world series, the withdrawing of Harriet Miers, the pending indictments in the CIA leak case and Mr. Sulu, George Takai, is gay.

Notes the coming out story:

You come to realize, “This is who I am. And by gum, I’m not going to let it be a constraint!”

I guess that going public at age 68 means that you end up saying things like "by gum."

As a side note, apparently it wasn't a total secret. Takai is a long-time member of a L.A. branch of the gay running club Front Runners. I take it then that there isn't all that much overlap between Star Trek enthusiasts and runners???

Alex and I were chatting recently about the musical CATS. He's never seen it and I saw it because, well, it was the 80's and it seemed important for my family to do that at the time.
Anyway, for all of our chatter and giggling about the show we never asked the most obvious question; Why isn't there a similar musical about dogs?

Perhaps you might want to create such a musical yourself and begin your own musical theater empire. Too late! Been done! And, after what is described as a successful year-long run in Los Angeles, a second company of BARK! THE MUSICAL opened (or as the press release prefers "unleashed") in Chicago last night.

From the online description:

BARK! the rave new musical about man’s truest friend, as told and sung from the doggie point of view in a city Animal Shelter.

Howlingly funny, fast-paced and invariably poignant, BARK! is THE new American musical. With bone-clutching performances by a pedigree six member cast and original music by the songwriting team of Francis & Dillard, BARK! will have you yipping and yapping for more.

Exquisitely and outrageously directed and choreographed by the legendary Kay Cole—the original Maggie in A Chorus Line—BARK! has left the critics drooling.

Maybe it's just me but there is a definite "English as a second language" vibe to that description. "Exquisitely and outrageously directed" ???

If you got any enjoyment at all out of WAITING FOR GUFFMAN then really, you must check out the pictures of the cast (like CATS it's all actors dressed as animals) but, most especially, you must click on the audio samples from the original cast recording. The aforementioned Francis & Dillard have done some truly amazing work with the songs: "Sock-a-holic" ," FOOOOOOD", "Three Bitches" and "Whizzin' on Stuff".

The White Sox are going to the World Series!
I don't care much about baseball but it's exciting when a local team is in a big-ass championship. It was fun with the Bulls and since neither they nor the Bears are going to do anything any time soon, the White Sox is what I have to work with. Cool. My boss and several of my co-workers are diehard Sox supporters so they'll all be in good moods for a while.

Enough baseball, on to love. I hung out with my friend Katie yesterday. She was feeling low because she had gone to a wedding where the couple had written their own vows. As Katie described them, "they were full of that 'a dove shot out of my heart' type stuff." She was low because she realized that if she and her fella were to write their own vows, hers would have to begin, "Our love is like a fat kid with a bucket over his head trying to make his way through a hedge maze."

I'm happy that when I repeated all of this to Alex he 1)Laughed as hard as I did and 2)Agreed with me, that far from being a depressing analogy, it is an apt and kind of romantic one.

Also I really like Katie's intention to play "Green Onions" by Booker T and the MGs as her processional.

I am a little bit obsessed with the story of the alligator-swallowing python in Florida. Here's a great pic.
The 13-foot python tried to swallow the 6-foot alligator. From the AP report:
Although the gator may have been injured before the battle began -- wounds were found on it that apparently were not caused by python bites -- Mazzotti thinks it was alive when the battle began. And it may have clawed at the python's stomach as the snake tried to digest it, leading to the snake's demise.

The python was found with the gator's hindquarters protruding from its midsection. Its stomach still surrounded the alligator's head, shoulders and forelimbs. The remains were discovered and photographed Sept. 26 by Michael Barron, a helicopter pilot and wildlife researcher.

Pythons in the Everglades have been a problem for a while now. This story discusses several battles between pythons and alligators, witnessed by various tourists.

Rhonda update:
"What's up with all those old people dying on that boat in New York? It's so sad!"

(pause)

"If you can't swim you shouldn't be on a boat anyway!"