Friday, February 03, 2006
That's Why the Gentleman Is a Tramp
I'm a guy who's in touch with his feminine side. Most of the close friendships I've made in my adult life have been with women. At my last corporate job, I was the only man in a department with 20 women, and I got invited to go shoe-shopping with them at least once. Bottom line: I can dish the dirt with the girls like I was one of 'em, baby. So I feel no qualm in admitting that I like Broadsheet, the female-oriented blog Salon launched last fall.
I like Broadsheet because I learn stuff like this: Harlequin Romances and NASCAR are introducing a series of racing-themed bodice rippers. As is the case with regular Harlequin romances, it's the men who will be the creatures of action and the women who will have their bodices ripped, and not the other way around. That's partly because those jumpsuits racers wear don't have bodices, and partly because there are no female drivers in NASCAR's major series anyway. (Imagine the good old boy conniptions that would ensue if there were.) We presume that many NASCAR fans can read--can't we?--but the question is, will they?
I also learned that the Liberty Counsel in Orlando, Florida (an organization whose name takes a disturbing amount of liberty with proper spelling--shouldn't it be "council"?), has decided that Valentine's Day would be a good time for the nation's teenagers to take yet another abstinence pledge. (I swear, pledging abstinence to these people is like being born again to these people--you have to do it every five minutes or it won't take.) This will actually be the third time they've done this, which shows you how effective it's been at penetrating the national consciousness.
Mmmm, penetrating . . . sorry. Where was I? Lots of religious and private schools are participating in this, although in the South, there are lots of public schools on the list, too, in many of the same places where NASCAR is hugely popular. So can we presume that all of the bodice-ripping that occurs in the NASCAR romances will be of wedding dresses? True love waits, after all.
Also on my feminine side, after I pronounced recently that Wonkette had jumped the shark by replacing Ana Marie Cox with male bloggers (a subject Broadsheet got into earlier this week), I received a report that the new guys are, in fact, funny. Those of us who miss Ana Marie are thrilled to learn that she's got her own blog, which debuted earlier this week. She's already tossed off a line worthy of being Quote of the Day. Commenting on the adminstration's rebranding of the war on terror as "the long war," she suggests that other administration initiatives could be similarly rebranded:
I'm a guy who's in touch with his feminine side. Most of the close friendships I've made in my adult life have been with women. At my last corporate job, I was the only man in a department with 20 women, and I got invited to go shoe-shopping with them at least once. Bottom line: I can dish the dirt with the girls like I was one of 'em, baby. So I feel no qualm in admitting that I like Broadsheet, the female-oriented blog Salon launched last fall.
I like Broadsheet because I learn stuff like this: Harlequin Romances and NASCAR are introducing a series of racing-themed bodice rippers. As is the case with regular Harlequin romances, it's the men who will be the creatures of action and the women who will have their bodices ripped, and not the other way around. That's partly because those jumpsuits racers wear don't have bodices, and partly because there are no female drivers in NASCAR's major series anyway. (Imagine the good old boy conniptions that would ensue if there were.) We presume that many NASCAR fans can read--can't we?--but the question is, will they?
I also learned that the Liberty Counsel in Orlando, Florida (an organization whose name takes a disturbing amount of liberty with proper spelling--shouldn't it be "council"?), has decided that Valentine's Day would be a good time for the nation's teenagers to take yet another abstinence pledge. (I swear, pledging abstinence to these people is like being born again to these people--you have to do it every five minutes or it won't take.) This will actually be the third time they've done this, which shows you how effective it's been at penetrating the national consciousness.
Mmmm, penetrating . . . sorry. Where was I? Lots of religious and private schools are participating in this, although in the South, there are lots of public schools on the list, too, in many of the same places where NASCAR is hugely popular. So can we presume that all of the bodice-ripping that occurs in the NASCAR romances will be of wedding dresses? True love waits, after all.
Also on my feminine side, after I pronounced recently that Wonkette had jumped the shark by replacing Ana Marie Cox with male bloggers (a subject Broadsheet got into earlier this week), I received a report that the new guys are, in fact, funny. Those of us who miss Ana Marie are thrilled to learn that she's got her own blog, which debuted earlier this week. She's already tossed off a line worthy of being Quote of the Day. Commenting on the adminstration's rebranding of the war on terror as "the long war," she suggests that other administration initiatives could be similarly rebranded:
"No Child Left Behind" = "Some Children Left Behind, Mostly Poor Ones"Good to have you back, darlin'.
"Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief and Economic Recovery Act" = "Giving the Appearance of Taking Action Until the Sad Pictures Go Away Act"
"Patriot Act" = "Welcome to Oceania"
