Schadenfreude & Innocent Joys
Now and then good things happen:
• Arizona Guv Jan Brewer vetoed that state’s vile refusal-of-service bill directed against homosexuals. Conservatives are having apopolexy at this moment because, clearly, the veto is meant to enslave all Christianists. The uber-pious of this holy land were calling AZ’s SB1062 a law ensuring “freedom” for those who buy into the notion of a Big Daddy-o in the Sky. See, those god-ists want to be able to shun and discriminate against a class of human beings because that Big Daddy, apparently, told them to do it. Freedom, right?
■
● The National Enquirer was forced to finance a playwrights’ grant well into the future because that rag had published a weird (what else?) accusation that a straight man was Philip Seymour Hoffman’s gay lover and fellow freebase freak. That straight man got all huffy after his schoolboy son pointed out the headline informing anencephalic America that Pops dug men and dope. The straight man sued and — presto! — the Enquirer settled because, natch, they hadn’t a leg to stand on. Now the rag must bankroll something to be called the American Playwriting Foundation which will award a yearly $45,000 prize for a selected, unproduced play.
Hoffman & David Bar Katz: Not Lovers
■
[Note: Don’t embarrass yourself and try to point out that I’ve spelled one word playwright and another playwriting. The spellings are correct.]
● The Bruster’s ice cream palace at the junction of SR 46 and SR 446 — a guilty pleasure mecca virtually visible from my back porch — opens for the season tomorrow. Whee! BTW: Now that gay marriage is becoming more and more acceptable to Ma & Pa Kettle, ice cream marriage is sure to follow. Count me in.
Oh, Baby
■
The Chocolate Moose, meanwhile, remains open daily from 11am-7pm until the Sky Gods come to their senses and remember Bloomington is not Bismark, North Dakota.
● Have I mentioned Krista Detor‘s new CD and book package are now on sale at the Book Corner? Yup, her Flat Earth Diary and the accompanying Notes From the Bridge will cost you a cool $22. So, whip out that wallet and support your local canary and book peddler at the same time.
■
● Still looking for that silver lining: My beloved Chicago Cubs have not, as yet, lost a game in 2014. The season starts in five weeks.
Photo: Joe Camporeale/USA Today
■
● Finally, an old radio hit that’s been pleasantly earworming me for a couple of weeks now. I figured I’d share, so here:
▲