Linky fever

OK, I keep seeing young women on the bus and other public transportation, with tiny little jewels pierced on their noses, cheeks or chins.
[Poll #891913]
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How odd to be talking with friends in other parts of the country, and when you mention how cold it is (39 degrees Fahrenheit!), they come back with how the high for the day, where they are, is zero, and that’s not even counting wind chill. So, why are we in the bay area complaining?

Don’t they realize now that 39 degrees in San Francisco is like -40 degrees where they are? They get zero degrees every year! They should be used to it by now!

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For those of you who knew Chris Nelson, author of The Bear Cult book and one of the founders of Bear magazine, I finally found an obituary. I only knew Chris slightly -- he dated Ed, a co-worker of mine, several years ago, and I saw him on BART occasionally. Many of our lives would be quite different, and quite likely more emotionally-impoverished, if Chris hadn’t been around to help lick that inchoate bear-whelp of an idea into a real bear community.

From Wikipedia:

Photographer and researcher Chris Nelson and his partner Richard Bulger started "Bear Magazine"--originally a xerox-copied flyer--from their home in San Francisco's North Beach in the 1980s. Richard and Chris took the magazine to a high-gloss format which was distributed throughout the world. Blue-collar, working-class men often appeared in the magazine, which usually did not depict gay bodybuilders or leathermen.

My good friend Alec Baldwin called ... he wants to go skinnydipping

I just had actor Alec Baldwin call up qbear at home and tell him he had a nice behind.

In reply, Jack had Alec call me up and tell me I had nice biceps.

Still, I don’t know why Alec thinks my only joy in life is “hooking up with skanks.”

(So far as crummy commercials go, this is one of the funnier ones! You can get a personalized message from Alec Baldwin here and read about this promotional campaign here.)