Wonda Sykes: Don't Hate, Eat Pork & Beans

The ever adorable, and recently out (publicly), Wanda Sykes stops in at the Tonight show yesterday to discuss Prop 8 and "Day without a Gay".

Just Asking...

WHICH actress who plays a teen on a hit TV show incorrectly insists she's a size zero? Employees at a clothing line have to remove all the bigger-size labels from garments they send her to her to keep her happily deluded . . . WHICH handsome TV host is thought by patrons of at least one gay bar to be in the closet? As the stud discusses dating women, they hoot and holler, and hurl insults at the screen.

Christmas Crumpet Cravings

All of this talk about Christmas has gotten me all fired up. I have begun, in vain I know, to once again scour the city of Chicago in my vain attempt to find one grocery store, bakery or even tea room, that sell crumpets.

I have loved crumpets my entire life. They are my absolute favorite thing to have for breakfast on a cold winter's day, or even as a nice snack in the evenings. In the Motherland (aka Canada) they are readily available in any grocery store (at least in English speaking Canada - finding them in Quebec is more of a challenge).

It is driving me crazy, to the point where I just sent a pleading email to the family begging them to ship me a few packages ASAP. If I didn't know better, I would swear I was pregnant!

UPDATE: Crisis averted, my friend and colleague Kerri just informed me that they have crumpets at Trader Joe's. It's a good day!

All I Want for Christmas...

As I get older, I become increasingly immune to all holidays, but the December holidays most of all. I no longer get excited at the prospect of my brother Ian's surprisingly delicious chicken-free matzo ball soup (prepared for the first night of Hanukkah) nor the wonderful stockings full of treats and (always) a single Chinese orange that greet me every Christmas morning. I don't want to sound like a Grinch, I enjoy them, but I just don't seem capable of recapturing the magic of the season that I enjoyed as a child.

My parents were always able to create the most incredible Christmases for us. Our father, especially, would ply us with gifts presented by Issac (more on him later) as well as the characters he created to entertain us on our frequent boat trips and visits to the cottage (like the Hay Monster). This particular traight was definitely inherited by me, whose own sense of humor runs to giving friends, "Congratulations on your First Communion" cards on their birthdays.

Now, Issac is a tricky one. He is a beloved member of the family who just happens to be a monkey puppet. He has hosted every childhood Christmas I can recall. As a morning MC he is replete with funny comments and all around good cheer - the only drawback is that, due to shyness, he will only whisper into my father's ear, leaving us to enjoy his bon mots second-hand.

When Drew, Ian and myself were young, my father would employ us to help him wrap our mothers gifts in "disguises" in order to prevent her from guessing what they really were. A particularly memorable wrapping job, for our first Christmas at Spirit Rock, looked exactly like a living Christmas tree, enbalmed in brightly colored paper, (though for the life of me I can't remember what was actually inside).

This year, we are lucky enough to have Ian home from the UK for the holidays although Andrew and his wife will not be making an appearance. Drew, due to travel restrictions imposed on service members prior to shipping out to Afghanistan, will be celebrating Christmas at home in Alberta.

I sometimes wonder if we will ever, again, have a Christmas like the ones of my youth - with the whole family gathered happily under one roof. I guess it goes without saying what I'm wishing for.

A Day without a Gay, USA

Tomorrow is national Day without a Gay, a protest designed to illustrate to the population at large the many contributions made to this country by the LGBT community. All folks of the gay persuasion are being asked to call in sick (if possible) and not contribute to the economy in any way. There are also rallies scheduled all across the US, including one at Chicago City Hall tomorrow morning at 11am, encouraging the state to support equal marriage for all Illinois residents.

Sadly, I will not be able to take the day off but I have (fingers crossed) cleared my schedule in order to attend the rally tomorrow morning with Joey B. Please do what you can, equality is not a privilege.

For more information click here.

There Goes The Neighborhood!

I have often prided myself, since moving into the Ravenswood Manor neighborhood of Chicago, that I live right down the street from the Governor. Following today's arrest, I can assure you that I will never mention it again.

It is so depressing, in a year when Chicago has been thrust onto the global stage, thanks to Obama's historic Presidential win, to have to suffer the black eye of business as usual Chicago politics. Notoriously, Chicago is a city of back door deals and there are many, many examples throughout the city's history of politicians (on both sides of the aisle) whose greed have been their downfall.

I hope now, finally, we can begin to create a new kind of politics in Chicago. It is time to remind all of our representatives that they are public servants - especially those who operate as influence peddlers and palm greasers. Now is the time to shed the corruption of the past and build a bridge to the future. The world is watching.

Out of The Hills, and into The City

Here is the latest trailer for the Whitney Port vehicle, "The City".

Joey B and I discussed, last week, the fact that they seem to be making Whitney seem much "dumber", in terms of her choices, than she was in The Hills. I guess that's part of helming your own semi-scripted show on MTV. Good luck, Whitney. You couldn't pay me enough to hang out with Olivia Palermo. Yawn, yawn, yawn.

The City - MTV Shows