DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

Given what I wrote yesterday about gay adoption, I find this photo hilarious.

Happy Valentine’s Day, indeed!

Mark Morford asks, What are you so afraid of?

This is my favorite part (well, aside from “Fear is the new black”):

Try this test. Ask your neighborhood neoconservative homophobe just what, exactly, would happen if, say, gay marriage were to be legalized nationwide.
Ask them what would change. Ask them to be very specific. How would their lives be threatened? How would society crumble, exactly? Riots? Locusts?

I actually did this once. I didn’t realize he was a neoconservative homophobe at the time. We were having dinner at a nice restaurant with two other people. Someone mentioned a California initiative regarding, I think, adoption rights for same-sex couples, and unwittingly I voiced my support. I thought it was a no-brainer… adoption is a good thing. Broken homes are a bad thing. Foster care is the band-aid on the bullet hole.

This person had a different opinion, which he proceeded to share, along with some spittle and maybe a few used bits of table bread. He launched into a fire-and-brimstone tirade about, basically, the evils of homosexuality. The other guests were embarrassed for both our sakes.

His argument was that children raised by same-sex couples couldn’t possibly end up with healthy attitudes about sex and relationships, because they’d have no male role model. (He was already apoplectic at the thought of lesbian couples — I can’t imagine how he’d have responded to the idea of male gay couples. I think I’d have had to take his fork away from him.)

I said that hetero couples are equally capable of raising kids with unhealthy attitudes. He agreed with me but countered that I hadn’t addressed the point, which was true enough. I was never on the debate team.

So, he won the argument. I could tell because he ordered a fat bowl of bread pudding for dessert. In contrast, I didn’t feel well enough to finish my dinner.

This is Naxos Town, the main city on the island on Naxos. I was standing with my back to the gate of Apollo. The wind came from the left. The sun set behind me to the right. And the smell of drying octopus came from just down the hill.

One of the best things about my house is something I didn’t even know I was getting: a seedless mandarin tree. This is the best fruit in the world, or at least the best in my yard. I could eat five a day.

I watched nearly 90 movies last year. Once I’d added up the total, I stared agape. 88 movies?! At two hours apiece that’s the equivalent of four and a half workweeks… a month of workdays spent sitting in a dark room in pursuit of passive entertainment. (With a gallon of popcorn on my lap, natch. Some things never change.)

Here’s the conflict: I really like movies. I mean, obviously I like movies, or I wouldn’t have spent 176 hours last year watching them. For pure entertainment, it’s hard to beat the first Matrix.

After eight viewings, though, there is still no spoon. I’m looking back to wonder if I could have done something more constructive with that time.

Tonight, Tuesday, is cheap movie night at the local multiplex. For about the fourth week running, LoTR III tickets cost a paltry $3.50.

I haven’t seen the movie yet. I know I will someday. But not tonight. I just don’t want to take the three and a half hours out of my schedule. I think I’ll end up missing the whole big-screen experience of this film — a realization I have mixed feelings about. Maybe this push to accomplish all my new goals will fizzle out in a few weeks. In the meantime, though, the movies will have to wait.