Lady Random’s wheel landed on #108, making this week’s Swag Tuesday winner Thomas, who blogs from California at Oh, Manchester. Thomas sez: “Holy s—, I never win anything! Wow. I’m very excited to have won this week’s Swag Tuesday – Edmund White is one of the best writers around and has been for decades, and should be considered a national …

I’m a couple days behind on this, but AIDS Walk New York raised a record $6.8 million on Sunday, with the proceeds headed for GMHC and over 50 other HIV/AIDS organizations. Celebrities taking part included Cyndi Lauper, Whoopi Goldberg, Alan Cumming, T.R. Knight, and Lance Bass. A massive crowd of 45,000 walked this year, also a new record.

Fleet Week 2007 begins today and the ships are beginning to pull in at Pier 90. Insert your tired “seaman” jokes below.

A Liberty University student was arrested at Jerry Falwell’s funeral yesterday after police were tipped off by his family that he had brought bombs that he intended to throw at the Westboro contingent that was protesting at the event. The bombs were described as a soda-can sized “sort of napalm”. Man, the gentle loving people of the Lord are ready …

Ouch. PlanetOut’s stock price has nosedived since last week’s earnings announcement, closing yesterday at $1.11, recovering slightly from an all-time low of $0.86 at midday. The 52-week high for the stock, which trades as LGBT, was $7.95.

Openly gay New York State Assemblyman Danny O’Donnell (Rosie’s brother) introduced Gov. Elliot Spitzer’s gay marriage bill to the state Assembly yesterday. The bill, which is expected to come to a vote in the next few weeks, needs 76 votes to pass. The Empire State Pride Agenda says 69 members have indicated support, 48 are undecided, and 33 have voiced …

It’s hard to believe that people fish out of the East River, but they do. As it is a tidal strait, visitors to New York are sometimes baffled to see the East River rushing rapidly uptown, away from the sea. I always think that looks neat.

The fourth annual gay bloggers meet-up takes place in NYC this weekend. Largely organized by Dallas-based bon vivant Zeitzeuge Mark, this year’s drunkathon stretches over the holiday weekend. Friday 9PM: Cocktails at Therapy in Hell’s Kitchen, 348 W.52nd Street. Saturday 2PM-6PM: Central Park picnic on Bear Hill above the roller-disco near the flagpole. Live DJs, wacky NYC characters, no alcohol …

Florida Governor Charlie “Closet” Crist has grown a beard and her name is Kelly. Yesterday they made their relationship known to the St. Petersburg Times, who gushed, “She’s blond. She’s tan. She’s a mother of two, a former beauty queen who auditioned for NBC’s Fear Factor by eating a live earthworm and hiding four lizards in her mouth.” During his …

Dead Or Alive frontman Pete Burns, 47, is looking for a personal assistant to work on the set of his upcoming British reality show which begins filming in June. “Would you love to work for a celebrity? This role is not for the faint hearted! Are you highly efficient, motivated, organised, flexible, and thick skinned?!” Burns continues his plastic surgery …

NYC Mayor Bloomberg will announce today that all city taxis must be converted to gas/electric hybrids by 2012. Approximately 20% of the fleet will be converted every year until the target date. While I’m certain that taxi owners will transfer the cost of this conversion to city riders, with the exception of a couple of major missteps, Bloomberg continues to …

FexEx/Kinko’s, Vanderbilt Street, 8:30amMale Hipster: I still can’t believe you slept with him. I mean, he’s cool and all, but… Female Hipster: Well, clearly he’s not completely gay. MH: Nuh-uh. Once you’ve done it, you are all the way gay. FH: Well, I guess that makes me a lesbian. MH: That’s HOT. FH: Whatever, dude..

The centerpiece of the gigantic Times Square Toys R Us is a three-story ferris wheel with passenger cars in shapes of popular toy brands: Hello Kitty, Cabbage Patch Kids, Barbie, etc. There’s usually a long line to board and tickets are about $4. And no, I’ve never ridden it. There’s also a giant animatronic T-Rex and a two-story Barbie Dream …

Courtesy of Avalon Publishing, this week’s swag prize is Chaos: A Novella and Stories, the new book from Edmund White, revered author of the must-have trilogy for fans of gay literature: A Boy’s Own Story, The Beautiful Room Is Empty, and The Farewell Symphony. And many of you may fondly recall 1977’s The Joy Of Gay Sex, which White coauthored …

Downtown Jersey City as seen from Christopher Street. Jersey City’s skyline has been growing steadily since 9/11, thanks to all the Manhattan companies that bailed. JC is the second-biggest city in the state, behind Newark, with about 240,000 residents. Interestingly, JC has no ethnic majority, all races are represently almost equally.

Bill Maher delivers the definitive (and hilarious) eulogy.

Saturday night I found myself chatting with a guy from Nottingham and a guy from Sydney, when naturally the conversation turned to American imperialism. I jokingly asked a friend nearby, “Quick, name five famous Australians.” He hesitated and I added, “Besides Kylie.” He said, “Oh, shoot. Um…there’s her sister, Danni. Oh, and Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe.” I said, “Don’t …

Again, the commenting system on this here website thingy is acting up. I’ve noticed that Haloscan has added a widget that notes how many people are viewing an individual comment box. If that’s the cause of the current issue, there doesn’t seem to be a way to disable that function. Boo.

Calling Bush the “worst president in history” in international relations, Jimmy Carter said yesterday: “We now have endorsed the concept of preemptive war where we go to war with another nation militarily, even though our own security is not directly threatened, if we want to change the regime there or if we fear that sometime in the future our security …

In an “open letter to the black community” televangelist Rev. Harry Jackson Jr. is calling on African-Americans to oppose the Matthew Shepard Act, the Senate version of the LGBT-inclusive hate crimes bill that recently passed in the House. Jackson: “As a pastor, I am concerned about the potential of being charged with a crime as the result of the actions …