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This morning the Spanish/Peruvian/Incan pan-flute band in the subway station was playing More Than A Woman, the R&B/downtempo/disco classic written/recorded by the Austrailian/British Bee Gees for the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever, the epoch-defining film tribute to Brooklyn/Italian-American/70’s disco nightlife. Hearing the pan-flute band version of More Than A Woman made me feel happy/old.

Continuing the seeming protocol of giving HIV medications what Oprah Winfrey might call “ghetto names” (Kaletra, Sustiva, Lexiva), the new triple-drug HIV pill has been christened Atripla and will be launched within a week.

“Give me a fucking break.” – Madonna’s gay brother, Chris Ciccone, complaining to Attitude Magazine that men in gay bars won’t stop talking to him about his sister. Poor baby. I bet it never gets him laid either.

One of my favorite American male vocalists, the late Johnny Cash, has his first #1 album on the Billboard charts in 37 years, with American V: A Hundred Highways. Aside from my pleasure in seeing Cash top the charts again, it’s depressing to see that he did it with a first week sales total of only 88,000 units, the lowest …

Handbills and leaflets advocating using Molotov cocktails on WorldPride marchers began appearing around Jerusalem this week. AOL Gay & Lesbian editor Kenneth Hill reports that New York Rabbi Yehuda Levin said that if gays do descend on Jerusalem for WorldPride, “I promise there’s going to be bloodshed — not just on that day, but for months afterward.” The WorldPride website …

Taking my temperature last night, I had to laugh at myself for feeling disappointed that it was only 100.3, because I felt so much sicker. Now I’m wondering if there isn’t one of those wonderful German compound adjectives that describes precisely the feeling of being disappointed that you aren’t really all that sick, no matter how you think you feel. …

When I moved in, he was the first person on the block that I noticed. A tall elderly gentleman somewhere between his early 80’s and late 100’s. Always outside. Always moving. Always talking. With a full head of white hair, and usually wearing suspenders over a crisply ironed short-sleeve shirt, he stands out on a block that is home to …

“2006 Wimbledon Champion. I am what I am.” – from the t-shirt donned by out lesbian Amelie Mauresmo after winning Wimbledon for her second Grand Slam title. Who wants to bet that copies of that t-shirt start springing up for sale? If anybody has a pic or screenshot of Mauresmo in that shirt, please send it to me and I’ll …

Today the Center For Constitution Rights issued a landmark 51-page report on the abuses at Guantanamo Bay, titled “Report on Torture and Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Treatment of Prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.” The report details the beatings, torture, and rape of prisoners using declassified and unclassified materials. Download the PDF file of the report here. CCR Legal Director Bill …

Ric Weiland, the massively wealthy benefactor of gay and HIV-related causes, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head on July 1st at the age of 53, after suffering long bouts of depression. Weiland was one of the five original Microsoft employees, hired by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975. Weiland developed BASIC and COBOL for Microsoft, launching …

I had to walk to work this morning after a residential building exploded and collapsed on the Upper East Side at 62nd and Madison, near my subway line. The explosion came just as I was heading down the stairs into the 68th Street Station and startled me so much that I dropped my newspaper. The woman in front of me …

Over the last month I watched more soccer than in the previous 46 years of my life. My office mysteriously acquired cable TV shortly before the World Cup began (hello, I have English employers), and my co-workers very kindly endured my non-stop critique on the varying hotness of the players, expressing bafflement when I told them that English footballer Wayne …

The NY Times is reporting today that this week the FDA will approve the long sought-after holy grail of HIV therapy, the once-a-day pill. In a rare bit of pharma-collaboration, Bristol-Myer Squibb’s Sustiva will be combined with Gilead’s Truvada to create the pill. Truvada is already a two-drug pill containing Viread and Emtriva. All three drugs will be layered within …

Joe – Thank you very much for your note. The commuter weigh station is located on the lower level dining concourse right near Two Boots Pizza. We encourage passersby to stop in, particularly during bathing suit season. Of course, I’m kidding. Thank you very much for pointing out the error on page 14. I can assure you that you are …

My ‘hood, the Upper East Side, is a very Jewish neighborhood in a city with the second largest Jewish population in the world. It is home to two major landmarks of Jewish culture, the historic Central Synogogue on E. 55th Street and the Prada flagship store on E. 70th. Or as it is known to my mailman and the other …

Merriam-Webster is giving a sneak peek at some of the “new” words being added to the 2006 Collegiate Dictionary, due at the end of summer. Mo’s must be running that joint because words being added include: unibrow, drama queen, assplay, supersize, big-box, polyamory, and himbo. All of which were clearly culled from Manhunt profiles. Not making the cut: versabottom, UB2, …

Dear Grand Central Partnership, Thanks very much for the cool restaurant guide that you guys were handing out this morning. Quick question. It says here that Grand Central is more than “just a weigh station for commuters.” Hey, where are the scales? Joe, The Pedantic Blogger

This is the new America. It’s what’s coming for all of us. We may as well get ready for it. The democratic election process? Fucked. Constitutional protections? Fucked. Respect for sovereign nations? Fucked. Get ready for life under the Christianists. Start sewing that red, white and blue burka. Thanks to their fraudulently installed government, we’re already more than halfway there. …

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