Before I drove cross country in 2010, I had never heard of Southern cooking diva Paula Deen, but I credit her for the harmony of our readers’ dinner in Atlanta that spring.  You see, when we gathered in that august town, I was concerned; one of our critics (with whom I have corresponded at least since 2006) would be joining us — along with two of our most outspoken conservative readers, one who, two years after the 2008 election, still sported a McCain-Palin sticker (with the Arizona Senator’s name removed) on his truck.

I had feared I might have to play peacemaker.  Well, I didn’t have to.  I don’t know how Paula Deen came up, but as soon as she did, all my Atlanta readers found something to talk about — how they delighted in this diva, enjoying her books, TV show and recipes.  They discussed which ones they had tried and home and celebrated her appreciation for butter.  Paula Deen, in short, bridged the political divide.

Aware of this woman’s capacity to foster harmony, my ears naturally perked up when my correspondent James Richardson alerted me this weekend to an article he wrote, taking to task “Northern” food critics who would bring this Southern diva down:

“Thinking of getting into the leg-breaking business, so I can profitably sell crutches later,” [New York-based foodie Anthony] Bourdain said Tuesday. He has also previously called Deen the “worst, most dangerous person to America” for her country cooking indulgence. Even 2011 James Beard winner Jose Andres said that Dean should “endorse a vegetable or fruit” instead of a diabetes drug.

But the Bronx cheer for apparent chef-turned-rebel terrorist Deen, a prototypical Southern mother with a lifetime’s recipes of irredeemably deep-fried dishes, is less a reflection of the culinary elitism that runs through Bourdain’s vice-ridden travelogues than the regionalist snobbery that fuels its appeal.

. . . .

From food to faith, the mythic Dixie–soulful and abundant, passionate and insubmissive–has always clashed with the rigidly cosmopolitan north, which keeps an ever watchful eye on we, her unlearned, drawling wards. (more…)

Apologies for the slow blogging.  Am spending time with some good Mormon friends in Utah.  And, no, they’re not trying to “cure” me.  They know I’m gay and have made me very welcome in their home, even allowing me to adopt their children as my niece as nephews.  Indeed, they have made me feel far more welcome than have many gay liberals upon learning I’m a conservative.

Anyway, as you can probably guess, I have much to say on the retirement of the unhappy Barney Frank.  The long and the short of it is that it is a very good thing for gay Americans.  We will no longer have this mean-spirited embarrassment as the most prominent gay politician in the country.  If we had a less biased media, reporters would note how frequently the Massachusetts Democrats has been wrong and journalists would ask him tough questions.  He has shown an obliviousness to the reality of the marketplace and the record of the Reagan era.  And has demonstrated a refusal to admit wrong and an arrogance about his critics.

He doesn’t seem to realize that this nation enjoyed an economic boom in the 1990s in no small measure to Senate Republicans’ success in filibustering the Clinton “stimulus” in 1993 and Bill Clinton’s compromises with such congressional Republicans as Newt Gingrich in the mid-1990s.

That said, I post this piece having just chanced upon this post on Drudge:

“For those unfamiliar,” writes Noel Sheppard in posting this,

Blake writes for the Post’s The Fix political blog, hence the moniker “Fix Aaron.”

What would one expect from a newspaper that only five months ago called for readers to sift through former Alaska governor Sarah Palin’s email messages?

It therefore isn’t at all surprising they’d be looking for dirt on the current Republican presidential frontrunner.

Wonder if Mr. Blake or any of his Washington Post colleagues went looking for dirt on the Democratic presidential frontrunner in the 2008 campaign.

SOMEWHAT RELATED:  Wonder if anybody at Mr. Blake’s paper is tweeting for help in sifting through the recent White House Visitor Log Document Dump.

Just a reminder about the brunch for our readers at High Noon in the Mile-High City this coming Friday, November 25, 2011.  Drop me an e-mail if you can join us as you take a break from your Black Friday shopping.

Several of our readers suggested we do another Los Angeles dinner.  Please let me know if you could make a gathering in two weeks on Thursday, November 17.

And since I’ll be in Denver for Thanksgiving, would like to organize a lunch for our readers in the Mile High City (and surrounding regions of the Mountain State) on the following Friday, November 25.

If you’d like to attend either event, please drop me a line.

As some of you know, I’ve been doing a mini-cross country drive these past few weeks, having to coordinate planned trips to Colorado (to celebrate my Dad’s birthday) and a meetings in Massachusetts.

Last night, while checking into a hotel in the Texas panhandle, ended up chatting with a man in his seventies (he gave me his age) about his travels.  He was pulling up stakes in his native Illinois and together with his business partners, and and preparing to set up shop in Texas and New Mexico.

They had decided to face the frustrations of moving because their governor (of Illinois) had just raised taxes by a considerable amount.

I would daresay they’re not the only ones.

Sometimes, we bloggers find that our schedules do not allow us the time to write about breaking news of interest to our readers in a timely manner.  When the news breaks, we may have other plans and lack a paid staff or readily available understudies to fill in when we are away.

In the wake of the New York legislature’s vote to recognize same-sex marriages, I would have liked to have blogged more on the topic and have scribbled countless notes for a number of blog posts.  But, I had planned a trip, first to Santa Barbara for a friend’s going away party and thence to the Bay Area to spend time with some family members.  In the coming days, I will try to bring some order to my notes and write those posts, but for now, I write from the kitchen in my sister’s new house in the San Francisco ‘burbs, having just concluded a lengthy conversation with that spirited mother of a most energetic two-and-one-half year old.

For the past three days, I would have rather spent my time, dining with my mother (whose visit to SF was the occasion for my trip), hiking with my sister or playing with my nephew than organizing my notes and writing (hopefully) thoughtful posts on gay marriage.

Those three paragraphs were supposed to have served as the introduction to the first post I had wanted to write on gay marriage.  Perhaps, I should leave them as a reflection on blogging, but I do want to add one more thing.

Part of the “play” with my nephew involved a trip to Traintown, a railway-themed mini-amusement park featuring “a quarter scale railroad on 4 miles of track.”  On our twenty-minute ride, although I focused on my nephew, I did notice a (presumably) lesbian couple and their child.  One mother who had the short hair and very matter-of-fact manner of many lesbians I know and showed the same solicitude toward her daughter that my sister regularly shows her son, gently, at one time, offering her a sippy cup when the child seemed thirsty and not letting it fall when she rejected it soon thereafter, thrusting it at her Mommy (without regard to her willingness or ability to hold onto it). (more…)

Here I am once again in the City by the Bay, a jurisdiction with perhaps the most beautiful coastal setting of any major American metropolis and I do occasional double-takes, wondering if this or that locale looked familiar because I had once been there — or perhaps because I had seen it a movie. It does seem this city serves as the setting for many a film, particularly the darker ones.

So, this got me wondering, what, in your view, is the best film set in San Francisco?

Films which come to mind include The Maltese Falcon, What’s Up, Doc? and Foul Play.  To be sure, the last two hardly count as dark.

Will be in San Francisco next weekend and will be organizing a breakfast (about 9ish) on Satruday, May 14 for blog readers.  Let me know if you can join us.

(Bumped.)

As I‘ll be am now in Washington in a few days for a meeting, I’m organizing a Happy Hour together with our good friends at GOProud. Please drop me a line if you’d like to join us this coming Tuesday, February 2nd.

(Bumped and updated)

Am in San Francisco to celebrate the second birthday of the most important person in the Golden State (my youngest nephew).  While in town, am organizing a brunch for blog readers.  Let me know if you can join us tomorrow Saturday the 27th.

Just another reminder that I’ll be in Denver to visit my brother and sister-in-law and at least one of their kids over Labor Day Weekend and would love to arrange a readers’ brunch on Saturday the 4th (or possibly Sunday the 5th).

If you’re in the Rocky Mountain State and would like to join us, drop me a line.

*re-bumped and updated.

One of the greatest things about this trip has been the change to meet our readers. I was delighted that in Atlanta when one of our left-of-center readers joined us, he found that he and the readers more in line with this blog’s point of view shared a fascination with cooking and TV food shows.

Right now, a good number have RSVPed for the Boston dinner, tomorrow Wednesday June 9 but we still need find a place. Drop me a note if you have any ideas.  Thanks to our wonderful readers, we have found a place. Contact me for details.

Also some readers who have busy schedules have asked if they can come late for an after-dinner drink.  Of course you can.  We’d be glad to see you whenever you can make it.  

Let me know if any of you are free during the day on June 9 and want to join me (and at least one other reader) in taking a walk along the Freedom Trail. Together, GayPatriot fans can help trace the path of the original American patriots.

And don’t forget Brattleboro, Vermont on Sunday, June 13.  Here at least, we seem to have settled on a place.

E-mail me to RSVP for either or both of those dinners (as well as the walk along Freedom Trail).

NB:  Bumped & Updated

Today, for the first time in two weeks, I find myself alone on my journey, not spending the night in a hotel with my family or in the homes of my friends (and family).  After leaving Atlanta this morning where I had a wonderful dinner with some of our readers (including one non-conservative fan of the blog) last night, I am making a pilgrimage (of sorts) to the Western Hemisphere shrine to the goddess Athene, the owl-eyed Olympian, and subject of my dissertation.

Me being me, I actually brought a bound print-out of the first six chapters of the paper into the temple.  Now, I sit in Centennial Park, looking up at the reproduction of Phidias’ classic building, grateful for my wireless card which allows me to blog and confident that the battery on my laptop will last long enough to allow me to post this.

Now that I’m about to dine with some Atlanta readers, I wanted to remind y’all of our next dinner on my journey, a week from today, Wednesday, June 9 in Boston. 

I intend to arrive in Boston on June 8 so I can do something I’ve never done before in Beantown (though have long wanted to do it) — take a walk along the Freedom Trail.  If any of you are free during the day on June 9, it would be great to trace the path of the original American patriots with some GayPatriot fans.

And don’t forget Brattleboro, Vermont on Sunday, June 13.

E-mail me to RSVP for either or both of those dinners (as well as the walk along Freedom Trail).

Please join on Wednesday June 2 for a dinner in Atlanta.  E-mail me to RSVP.

Other upcoming dinners include Boston one week later on Wednesday June 9 or Brattleboro, Vermont on Sunday, June 13.

I will also be passing through Cincinnati over the first weekend of June and would be delighted to get together with any readers who live in or near the town of my birth.  And will be in St. Louis on or about June 16.

NB: Bumped

Sometimes when I drive cross country, it seems certain states become cursed–at least for that particular journey.  When I drove east across Wyoming in 1998, it seemed everything went wrong in the home state of one of our nation’s greatest Vice Presidents.  And I was grateful to cross the line into Nebraska.

On this trip, it seemed there was a jinx (at least for me) on the freeways in the Tarheel State.   In Raleigh, Mapquest told me to get onto I-440 South, only when I reached the appropriate interchange, there was no 440 South, only East or West, yet each of those directions had been newly painted onto the signs.  I headed in the wrong direction and ended up exiting the freeway at an interchange that did not allow me to back on in the opposite direction.

Yesterday, a misty rain made driving difficult as well as straight male rubberneckers checking out an attractive young woman who had drive her car off the road and into a ditch in the median.  And while my co-blogger gave me perfect directions to his home, save for transposing the digits in the address in one (of two) texts identifying the location of his residence, the North Carolina Department of Transportation did not see fit to identify that the exit for North 485.

And this morning, I ended up heading in the wrong direction on that very freeway (this time possibly due to my own error) on my way to meet PatriotMom for breakfast.

Now while the Tarheel State may have been jinxed freeway-wise, it was anything but disappointing people wise.   (more…)

The three things I have most noticed about DC since returning for only the third time since I lived here in the 1990s is how few people smile (compared to LA), how many more smokers there are and how oppressive is the humidity.

Perhaps, oppressive is a bit harsh, but it does take some getting used to when you’re walking around downtown, especially when wearing a jacket and tie and toting a laptop.

It is weird to be back, a stranger in a city which was once my home.  I remain familiar with many of the places I pass, but they all seem different in some way.  Not to mention the new construction.  

The oddest thing though is how easily I have been able to navigate the city’s streets.  I quickly remembered how things fit together.  When driving in, I didn’t need look at a map to find my way from I-95 South to central Arlington.

Why is it, I wonder, that people don’t smile as much as they do in LA.  Is it just the weather?  Was it like this when  I last lived here (in the Clinton era)?  Or does everyone now take themselves far more seriously now that a new man’s in charge.

Today, when I bought my Day Pass for the DC Metro, I was a little surprised to find a familiar face on the card:

So, what is the president doing on a ticket to the public transportation system in our nation’s capital.  It says it’s celebrating his presidential inauguration.  But, I don’t recall seeing the image of Bill Clinton on such tickets when I lived in DC during his inaugural in 1997.  Nor do my friends require such images during his first inaugural.  Or for either of W’s.

And anyway, the inauguration was 16 months ago.

This is not where Americans place the image of our president.  This is something they do in authoritarian countries.

After a wonderful few days in the Big Apple and its suburbs, I’m heading down to my old haunts in and around our nation’s capital later this afternoon. 

I encourage you to join me tonight at the debate between the first candidate we endorsed in this cycle, Matthew Berry and Patrick Murray, his rival for the Republican nomination to take out Democrat Jim Moran in Virginia’s Eighth Congressional District.

This debate follows the regular monthly meeting of the Arlington County Republican Committee, starting at 8 PM in the NRECA Conference Center, 4301 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington [Ballston].  This at North Taylor Street near the Ballston-MU Metro station.  For a map, go to www.arlingtongop.org.  There is free parking in NRECA garage.  (Enter from North Taylor Street.)

And afterwards, we will retreat to a local watering hole where the candidate will be joining us.

To RSVP for (or ask about) any of these events, just e-mail me.

Tomorrow night, Thursday May 27, some bloggers are holding a Happy Hour in my honor in the district.  You’re welcome to join us for that and a dinner to follow.  For location and to RSVP, just e-mail me.

Okay, so there appears to be a really big break in an issue which greatly concerns me when I have little time to address.  In between losing to my fifth eldest nephew in Ping Pong and celebrating with my third eldest niece who just become Bat Mitzvah, I have been having heart-to-hearts with my baby sister and talking myth with my mother while connecting with my older sister and reconnecting with college friends in New Jersey and having a wonderful dinner with a guy I dated in 1995 (who now lives in the Big Apple), we learn that the Administration has reached a compromise on repealing Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell as Nick reported here.

From what little I’ve read, my evaluation is that while this may not be an ideal solution, it does appear to be a step in the right direction.  Left-of-center blogress Pam Spaulding offers a somewhat skeptical perspective here and here.

Jimmy LaSalvia, Executive Director of GOProud, 

. . . urges conservatives in the House and Senate to support the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ repeal compromise that was reached yesterday.  While this compromise isn’t perfect, it does take an important first step in removing the Clinton-era ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy and returns the decision-making authority for the policy regarding gay service to the Department of Defense and the Commander-in-Chief.

 We believe strongly that Congress should not be involved in micro-managing military personnel decisions.  Those decisions should be made by our military leaders – not by opportunistic politicians.

 At the end of the day, conservatives should support a policy that best serves our men and women in uniform and our national security, and this compromise will insure that such a policy is implemented.

Seem that at least one Republican will be voting in favor of repeal.

In the coming days, let’s hope some reporters ferret out how this came to pass.  Looks like someone in the Administration is committed to doing the right thing.  And keeping the promises candidate Obama made on the campaign trail.