Smattering of Scattering

[jesse_the_k]

This is the funniest NYTimes article I've read in years. I doubt the author intended me to be laughing so hard, but....

begin quote  Men flirted and showed off their muscles through tight-fitting tank tops. Women with no shoes gyrated next to men with no shirts. A D.J. played deep beats. Shachar Keizman, 24, climbed atop an armrest and peeled off his shirt to reveal a chiseled torso. People screamed and stuck dollar bills in his shorts. ¶ Then the lights went down, and Channing Tatum got naked. quote ends

Yes, the Times reporter is amazed to find that the new movie Magic Mike, featuring male strippers, is drawing audiences of gay men! How surprising!

Also of interest & from the NY Times, runner & dak amputee Oscar Pistorius has qualified for the South African Olympic Team.

begin quote His presence on the most prominent stage in sports will no doubt rekindle an international debate over whether his J-shaped, carbon-fiber prosthetic blades give him an unfair advantage. quote ends

Direct from me:

New pains. Feh. One thing that's comforting about chronic pain is I become well-acquainted. This new stuff I don't understand yet. Could it be something worth bringing to medical attention? or is it just another meaningless annoyance? Also, keeps surprising me. There again? again? again? Grrr.

Finished Code Name Verity, a gripping YA novel set in World War II England and Occupied France. Two "girls" — one very posh and one very working-class — meet shuttling airplanes for the RAF aviators. Their epic friendship takes them across enemy lines, class lines, and moral lines. Author Elizabeth Wein threw an excellent virtual launch party at her eegatland.livejournal.com, with links to the historical characters that sparked her imaginative yet usefully accurate book. I was particularly struck by her descriptions of handling flying when things go terribly wrong. Wein herself is a pilot. I wished I'd known before I began that there is significant violence in the framing story: one of our two heroines is tortured by the Nazis. Wein's afterword helped me understand that she included these horrors to ratchet up the memorability — Never forget, and never again.

Comments

[gloss]

I *loved* Code Name Verity, so much so that when I came across a picture of a Lysander in another context yesterday, I cooed aloud.