Admit it: you have done it.

The proliferation of "air quotes" is distressing and sad. About the only medium it has not infested is radio.

Admit it. You have used "air quotes." I have seen very intelligent people use air quotes. Heck, I have even seen the holder of a PhD in English use them! The intelligent people are the ones who have no need for air quotes. They are able to communicate a thought without the now ubiquitous air quotes, right? Unless you are Italian, surely you can communicate without resorting to hand signals.

Since I have a personal pet peeve against air quotes, and because I wanted to find out how these darn things became mainstream, I began a quest to find the very first example of mass-media use of this punctuation perversion. There is a "Dirty Harry" movie from 1983 that showed air quotes. This is the earliest use I can find. What's next? "Air commas"? "Air semi-colons"? We can only hope that the trend reverses.

Oh, feel free to use my reaction to other people who use "air quotes": ask them why they are holding up four fingers while talking.

XES 78, Gym Bar 59

We were right there, man. Playing against the #1 team in the league. I believe we played one of our best games of the season. At one point in the second half, we even pulled within one point of XES. But they showed us why they are #1 by grabbing control once again and they never looked back. We represented Gym Bar well in spite of the 2nd place finish.

Regrettably, we are missing a couple of key players due to injury. As we enter the final month of regular season play though, we are getting into our zone. The playoffs will follow in March, and if we can continue (and improve upon) our most recent efforts, we could be the Cinderella of this year's season of New York City Gay Basketball.

(The Good Nurse took pictures. Watch for them here in the next couple of days.)

Signs You Might Be Gay

1. Wearing shorts out of season.
2. Ever using the term "window treatment."
3. Singing a Kelly Clarkson song as your audition song on American Idol.

Ta Gui La

A close friend of mine, Chip, whom I have known for years and years and years, was recently transferred from his office in Peoria, Illinois, to an office in Beijing. The one in China.

For no particular reason, this made me remember a trip he and I made to Toronto several years back. Now before I tell you the rest of that story, let me give you a little background on my experience with Toronto.

In a prior job, I was in Toronto several times a years for business. It is a wonderful city. I love it. I could live there. But whenever I have gone out to a gay bar, someone has always followed me back to the hotel. I don't know if it is courtesy--to keep me from walking the streets of a strange city alone. Or is it a presumption/expectation of something more? I simply haven't figured it out. In these trips from years ago, I sometimes invited to my room the kind person who safely saw me to the hotel. Sometimes I didn't. Only rarely did these visits become anything more than just a visit. (One of these days, I'll tell the story of William--1st runner up at the "Best Chest" contest at Woody's.)

Now back to the trip when Chip joined me in Toronto. We had gone to a nightclub--I can't remember which one, and we had a grand ole time. Chip was ready to leave before I was, though, so he went on back to the hotel. He wasn't followed.

Soon after, I returned to the hotel. I was followed. I did not want to pursue any extracurricular activities with this person, but his "puppy dog" eyes made me utter an invitation to come up and visit for a while. So we get to the room. Chip and the guest begin talking to each other. Before I know it, I am fast asleep. When I wake up the next morning, the guest was gone and Chip was smiling. He filled me in on enough of the details for me to piece together that Chip did pursue extracurricular activities. One bed away from me. And I slept through it all.

That's just one quick story about Chip--and there are so many--but he is now telling a much bigger story about being a simple, Alabama boy who now lives halfway around the world through the magic of a blog. I have added the link to the right. It is "No Place Like Home." I think you will appreciate his writing as well as empathize with his daily challenges to assimilate. Or something. Enjoy!

A Little Pitchy, Dawg

It. Has. Returned.

The excitement known as "American Idol" is once again invading our homes through the magic of television. Like the rubberneckers passing the scene of a car crash, I can't seem to keep my eyes from watching this madness. Sure, it's entertainment, but it's no "Nashville Star."

After getting home last night following marathon meetings, I fired up the ole DVR and let the good times start rolling! Just like last year, this week's shows featured the first auditions from US cities. This year, it was in Minneapolis the first night and then Seattle the second night. Also as last year, most of the program focused on those contestants whose abilities to sing rival my ability to quit smoking.

Nonetheless, I identified a couple of early favorites, but I must see all of the auditions to narrow my list of potential winners. Just as I did for "Nashville Star," I will make my prediction for the winner of "American Idol" once the "judges" have narrowed the field to the final dozen.

And just to add perspective, here are some observations:
-last year's winner of AI, Taylor Hicks, has disappeared faster than Ruben Stoddard.
-last year's winner of NS, Chris Young, continues to rise in sales and popularity.
-a losing AI contestant from last year, Kelly Pickler, is now becoming a country star.
-a winner from a few years past, Carrie Underwood, is a country superstar.

The conclusion? Country Music rules, dude!

A New Season of Nashville Star

Last night, a new season of Nashville Star launched on USA Network. For those of you who don't know, this is the country music version of American Idol. Last year's winner was Chris Young, who is HOT, HOT, HOT! The Good Nurse and I both swooned over his looks. Oh, he can sing, too. He already has an album which I bought and reviewed in this forum. Last year, the system worked. I predicted him as a winner from the first show. Can I duplicate my success with clairvoyance? Time will tell...

Before I make my predictions, I have just a couple of editorial comments about the show in general.

1. The hosts, Cowboy Troy and Jewell, do just fine. However, the writing for the show is at the level of a 6th grader. From 20 years ago. Expressions like, "give it up for..." or "for ya" are dated, patronizing and just poor cliches. I know it is the writing because I can tell they are reading from cue cards or teleprompters.

2. Anastasia Brown is a "judge" on the show. She represents the country music industry as an executive--an industry insider. After hearing her annoying judgments over the past couple of seasons, it's obvious that she must either be related to a REAL country music big shot or slept with one. Or a few. It is rare that I use profanity, but I want this to be perfectly clear: she don't know jack shit about country music. She will give contradictory advice to performers multiple times during a show. (Last season, she rhetorically asked a contestant why she would dare sing a song with a yodeling line in it, because it sure wasn't country. Hello, Anastasia: ever heard of Patsy Montana??) I can only imagine how much stronger country music would be today if there were fewer "executives" like Anastasia Brown. She barely qualifies to sweep the floors at a music company.

3. Like American Idol, the voting is not reliable. Those contestants with a wide circle of friends, or even a lengthy list of emails can influence and encourage multiple votes from many people, which affects the integrity of the contest. I don't know a solution, but then again, I'm not a television executive at USA Network.

Now, on to the predictions!

WINNER: Joshua Stevens. He has the voice, the looks and the humility. I want to see how he performs with a guitar. His vocal range is strong and I look forward to next week's performance.
TOP THREE: Angela Hacker, David St. Romaine, and Meg Allison.

BOTTOM THREE: Whitney Duncan, Zac Hacker, and Kasey Musgraves

NEXT WEEK'S ELIMINATION: Dustin Wilkes

On last night's show, the judges eliminated two candidates. The candidates they choose would have been voted off anyway, so there is no real surprise.

As a life-long country music fan, I enjoy this program. In the past couple of years, I have been forced to watch contests where people design clothes or compete in cooking or have a big race of some kind. Now, there is something I can enjoy and something I know at least a little about.

Love and Life

When you love someone, it's nothing but trouble.

So you have to decide whether to stop loving them, or love them even more.

On the Edge of Insanity

Early in the new year, I was relaxing at home when the phone rang. Caller ID revealed the caller to be my mother. I answered, heard her voice, and knew at once that she was frantic.

"They're changing my channels again."

"What?"

"They're changing my channels again!"

"What in the world are you talking about?!?!"

"My television...they are changing my channels again."

"Momma, have you started cocktail hour a little early?"

"No! I haven't had anything to drink today."

My mother lives on a street where many new houses have gone up in the past couple of years. One of her neighbors must have Dish Network, as does my mother, because his remote control is operating her receiver. Both of them must be very frustrated because every time her channel changed, she would change it back. This back-and-forth has since continued off and on for all of the new year. At one point, her neighbor attempted to order pay-per-view sports. She was so scared by that she called Dish Network to block her account from ordering pay-per-view of any kind.

The latest generation of Dish Network equipment includes remote controls that operate on radio frequencies instead of IR signals to communicate their commands from remote controls to receivers. With this technology, the remote controls work from greater distances.

I'm sure that the correction will involve a small adjustment of frequencies or some such. I hope not to receive another call from my mother that makes me think that she is being annoyed by aliens or any other creatures who are able to annoy people.