Outside of the privacy of my office and bedroom I am generally hostile to technology, cell phones in particular and cells phones in restaurants particularly in particular. So the last place I expected to fall in love with technology was in a restaurant, but that is exactly what happened last night. I was dining in one of my favorite neighborhood eateries, The Red Cat. If you don't know it, good. Stay away. It's too popular already. And as my BFF and I were still sipping our cocktails, that one thing happened that any and every New Yorker dreads more than anything else imaginable: a family with a young child claimed the adjacent table. The high chair was presented. A 12-to-18-month-old bundle of screaming horror was installed, casting a nightmarish shadow on my table setting. I thanked God this wasn't happening on a plane and then settled in for a ruined dinner.

But then magic happened. Mommy reached into her Chelsea Market tote and placed a portable DVD player in front of the little creature. Barney popped up, silently, and the entire evening was enjoyed sans even the slightest cry or whimper, jettisoned mashed potatoes or gravity-defying fluids.  read more »

In Capistrano the swallows return, in Times Square its boys in briefs. Pity poor Capistrano. It was a very warm weekend in New York this past weekend and the tourists were snapping away with their little cameras. Bless their souls.

Last night when I posted the video of Ann Coulter calling John Edwards a faggot, I did not know that our beloved gay-loving ex-mayor Rudy Giuliani was in the audience. Did Giuliani protest this vulgar slur? No. Did Giuliani stand and leave the room in disgust? No. Did Giuliani applaud Ann Coulter's presentation after her use of the "F" word? Yes.

[Update MB]: The New York Times reports that Giuliani, Romney and McCain have distanced themselves from her 'remarks', calling them 'completely inappropriate', 'offensive' and 'wildly inappropriate'. Coulter emailed the NYT, saying “C’mon, it was a joke. I would never insult gays by suggesting that they are like John Edwards. That would be mean.”

Remember when people like this used to wear sheets and hold their meetings in remote wooded areas? Now they're on CSPAN.

Jonathon Feit, the Editor and Publisher of gay marriage magazine WITH THIS RING has posted a fascinating report from the American Association of Advertising Agencies Media Conference and Trade Show currently underway in Las Vegas. Feit discusses the huge gap between scrambling for Pink Dollars on the part of advertising agencies and their corporate clients and real support for the gay community. They take gay dollars but show little interest in the needs and concerns of the gay community. He also has some very interesting observations on the lack of real diversity in the advertising industry suggesting that despite appearances, Madison Avenue remains the straight white man's world. It's very much worth a read.

One really disturbing example of this comes from Travelocity, a company that markets itself as a very gay friendly operation. A major online travel company (which I'm guessing is Travelocity) was going to advertise in Feit's magazine but declined in the end sending him the following email:

"[Travel company] looks to position themselves as a leader in LGBT travel community, [but] they are unfortunately not yet comfortable with all of the political issues surrounding gay marriage. I think this is an issue that goes above & beyond anything happening in the marketing dept at the company."  read more »