Matthew 7:1 Pride

1936-2025

 

Who am I to judge?

--Pope Francis, 2013

 In a televised interview, where we spoke with natural and conversational language, it is understandable that there would not be such precise definitions...It is not the first time that I speak of homosexuality and of homosexual persons. And I wanted to clarify that it is not a crime, in order to stress that criminalization is neither good nor just...When I said it is a sin, I was simply referring to Catholic moral teaching, which says that every sexual act outside of marriage is a sin. Of course, one must also consider the circumstances, which may decrease or eliminate fault...As you can see, I was repeating something in general. I should have said, "It is a sin, as is any sexual act outside of marriage,"...This is to speak of  "the matter" of sin, but we know well that Catholic morality not only takes into consideration the matter, but also evaluates freedom and intention; and this, for every kind of sin...And I would tell whoever wants to criminalize homosexuality that they are wrong.

--Pope Francis, 2023

In the past I've thought about making Francis the subject of one of these "Pride" posts that I periodically do whenever a public figure says something positive about the LGBTQ community, especially if that public figure is themself not known to be LGBTQ (after all, they have less incentive to say something positive.) Instead, I held back. For one thing, this blog is not particularly tailored to the sensibilities of Roman Catholics. Don't like your church's (pre-Francis) stand on homosexuality? Then go find some other church! Also, I thought there was quite a bit of equivocating in that 2023 quote. I wanted something more forthright. And he says nothing about gay marriage, the lack of which dooms a gay sin-averse devout Catholic to a lifetime of...celibacy (hmm, let's not go there.)

As you can see, I've changed my mind. What changed that mind? Well, I thought, there are a lot of Roman Catholics in the world. Living all my life so far in the Cleveland area, I've certainly met my fair share of them (starting with my parents, who practiced a lapsed version of the faith.) Then there's this:

That picture was taken just yesterday outside the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major, where the late pope will be laid to rest. As I understand it, that flag is not being waved in protest but in support of Francis and his stand on LGBTQ matters. It's a reminder to me that some people can't change their belief systems as easily as I can change what toppings I put on my burger. One small step for a gay secularist or gay humanist is one giant leap for any gay person who would just as soon accept their church's teaching, especially when their church's teaching accepts them. Who am I to judge?

A Case of Do or Dye

 

 

1939? Whatever wise advice those great women gave, the less-than-great men of the day apparently ignored it, but what's past is past. Looking ahead, maybe we can find twenty more such women--AOC qualifies, MTG doesn't--to tell us how best to prevent an impending trade war with every former, or soon-to-be former, U.S. ally in the Free World, or even an out-and-out shooting war with Greenland, Canada, Panama, Mexico, Harvard, etc. In the meantime--and I know it's no easy feat in the year of our Lord Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Four Two Thousand and Twenty-Five--I hope you enjoy your Easter as much as those two tykes on the cover of that magazine seem to be enjoying theirs. And if you find the eggs are a bit too costly this year:

Same basic shape. And they're already colored!

Quips and Quotations (All's Well That West Ends Well Edition)

 

Gielgud and Richardson

John Gielgud is the biggest gossip I know, and I know several. He's a fabulous talent, has a magnificent voice, and he's the first to admit he's selfish and egotistic. How refreshing!

--Ralph Richardson

This Day in History

 

Marian Anderson was born in Philadelphia in 1897, the daughter of a coal and ice dealer who himself was the son of an emancipated slave, and a mother who had some college but never graduated and thus earned extra money caring for small children. Devout Christians, Marian's parents discovered their eldest daughter was an exceptionally talented vocalist when she started singing in the junior choir of the Union Baptist Church at the age of six. In fact, the whole church was impressed, impressed enough that when her father died from a head injury when she was 12, leaving the family without much in the way of disposable income, the whole congregation raised enough money for Marian to train with a succession of musical teachers. Eventually, Marian came to the attention of the acclaimed music teacher Giuseppe Boghetti, whose students included soon-to-be acclaimed opera singers Jan Peerce and Helen Traubel. An even bigger break came when Marian won a singing competition sponsored by the New York Philharmonic and got to perform with the orchestra, a performance that finally won her acclaim from critics and audiences alike. In 1928, she gave her first performance in Carnegie Hall. A highly successful European tour followed. Then a successful one right here in the United States, followed by several more successful tours both here and abroad. The acclaimed conductor Arturo Toscanini told the now-acclaimed granddaughter of a slave that she had a voice "heard once in 100 years."

Only in America.

Given all the acclaim, you'd think Marian could sidestep the racist attitudes of the 1930s. She couldn't. Like other black performers, no matter how popular, she was turned away by some hotels and restaurants. In fact, she ultimately couldn't even sidestep the venue in which she had earned all her acclaim and popularity: the concert hall. Starting in 1930 and up until the opening of The Kennedy Center of the Performing Arts in 1971, Constitutional Hall was Washington D.C.'s principal showcase for touring classical music soloists and orchestras, as well as the home to the National Symphony Orchestra. Sounds like a perfect fit for the once-in-a-hundred-years contralto. Except the Hall was owned and operated by the Daughters of the American Revolution, which at the time had a Whites Only policy. Even if there hadn't been such a policy, Marian couldn't have performed there, as there weren't separate White and Black rest rooms as dictated by District of Columbia law. You see, back then the nation's capital was a segregated capital. Home rule was still many years away, Congress called the shots, and that Congress had its share of Southern Democrats who wanted to enjoy the same benefits of Jim Crow law that they enjoyed in their districts back home. As for those congressmen from outside the South, they didn't seem all that bothered by the segregation, either. 

Only in America.

The DAR refusal did not go unnoticed. Members of the NAACP, the National Negro Congress, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and the American Federation of Labor formed the Marian Anderson Citizens Committee. Finally, some Northern Democrats decided to take action, most prominent among them Eleanor Roosevelt, the nation's First Lady, herself a DAR member, until she decided to resign in protest. Roosevelt persuaded her husband Franklin to persuade Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes to allow Marian Anderson to give an open-air concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on April 9, 1939, Easter Sunday.

Only in America.

Watch: 

Well, that was then, and this is now. Under the present circumstances, you'd think they let a black woman, no matter how acclaimed, sing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial? Nah. Too DEI. As for the song she sung in the above clip, might the line "sweet land of liberty" also soon come to be seen as too DEI?

Only time, in America, will tell.

https:::://www.......hhs........gov/

 

Another looming pandemic?! Better make sure you're vaccinated before it's...

...too late.

Quips and Quotations (1% Inspiration and 99% Anticipation Edition)

 

1959-2025

Being successful doesn't change things. There's a painful, lonely part of acting because you're always waiting. The thing about being a performer is doing, and when you have to wait, it's the same pain as when you're starting out and have no job. You think that thing will go away, but it doesn't. It just shifts. I remember Robert Duvall saying that being a successful actor is all about finding interesting hobbies, because if you don't have the right hobby, you die. It's very hard to maintain interest. Most actors don't. They become a little clichéd. You learn how to do tricks and stuff.

--Val Kilmer

(Kilmer was in a lot of well-known movies but rather than show clips from all of them--I don't exactly have the time for all that--I'm going to show a trailer from just one, 1985's True Genius, which happens to be the movie of his I first saw. It's no great shakes as a film, except for Kilmer's own performance, which if didn't make him a star right away, set him in the right direction--Kirk)

(As you can see, the military-industrial complex was fucked up even before Pete Hegseth got his hands on it.)

Vital Viewing (Logistics of Logic Edition)

 

Actor Leonard Nimoy was born on this day in--OOPS! I forgot something.

 

OK, that's better. Actor Leonard Nimoy was born on this day in 1931 (he died in 2015.) Nimoy is best known for playing the starship USS Enterprise's taciturn alien first officer Spock on the 1966-69 TV series Star Trek. In a series of posts I did nearly a decade ago, I argued that despite being regularly chastised by his fellow spacefarers as being all brains and no heart, Spock eventually became the moral center of Trek. Whether Nimoy himself saw Spock that way, I can't say. I do know the actor put a lot of thought into his character, as can be attested to by this following video from 2010. Watch:

Now listen as Nimoy continuously drops the F-bomb:

OK, but what's got him so fascinated?

Vulcans start young.

Quips and Quotations (Staying Hydrated Edition)

 

Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.

--W.H. Auden

 

 

Vital Viewing (Precious Meddles Edition)

 

Ah, yes, Fort Knox, where some 147.3 million ounces of gold bullion is stored--or is it? New doubts have been raised:

What I gathered from watching that is, no matter what the conspiracy theorists say, the gold is there after all. Still, in the off-chance it's not, what can the United States do to stave off...whatever bad thing that happens if the gold isn't there?

 

The solution may lie in one of our oldest fairy tales. Take it away, Edward:

 

Turnips instead of gold? In that case we would need Fort Knox more than ever. After all, turnips are vegetables and as such last much longer in a...

 ...sealed container.

 

As Is

 

This former president was once compared to a "used car salesman."

This current (as well as former) president has been compared to the president who I just told you was once compared to a used car salesman.

But it's an unfair comparison.

As you can see, he's really a NEW car salesman.

Either way, caveat emptor (let the buyer beware.)

Smart Art (In Over Your Head Edition)

 

I've grown a goiter by dwelling in this den– As cats from stagnant streams in Lombardy, Or in what other land they hap to be– Which drives the belly close beneath the chin: My beard turns up to heaven; my nape falls in, Fixed on my spine: my breast-bone visibly Grows like a harp: a rich embroidery Bedews my face from brush-drops thick and thin. My loins into my paunch like levers grind: My buttock like a crupper bears my weight; My feet unguided wander to and fro; In front my skin grows loose and long; behind, By bending it becomes more taut and strait; Crosswise I strain me like a Syrian bow: Whence false and quaint, I know, Must be the fruit of squinting brain and eye; For ill can aim the gun that bends awry. Come then, Giovanni, try To succor my dead pictures and my fame; Since foul I fare and painting is my shame.   --Michelangelo, in a letter to a friend, poetically bitching about the physical discomfort he has to put up with while painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Vital Viewing (Good vs Evil Edition)

 

1930-2025

Did you hear that? The Pasadena Playhouse didn't think Gene Hackman would make it as an actor? Cancel my Rose Bowl tickets! Hackman proved himself to be one of the greatest actors of his generation, able to play heroes or villains. To demonstrate, I'm going to show you two clips. The first is of him as the heroic Popeye Doyle (for which he won an Academy Award) in 1971's The French Connection. The second is him as the villainous Lex Luthor in 1977's Superman. Watch:

I don't know. Hackman seems a bit safer to be around when he's the bad guy.

Quips and Quotations (I Heard She Sang a Good Song Edition)

 

1937-2025

To be moved, to be moved constantly by your own songs. You need it to be in tune with them, and I don’t mean in tune musically, but I mean in tune with the lyrics of the songs, with the words of the songs, and with the meaning. You need to be in tune with all of that, and that takes a little bit of doing.

--Roberta Flack

The Past Recast

 

Stonewall Inn, 1969

 

 NEWS FLASH: The National Park Service eliminated references to transgender people from its Stonewall National Monument website on Thursday, which now only refers to those who are lesbian, gay and bisexual. According to a Park Service spokesperson, “The National Park Service is implementing Executive Order 14168 and Secretary’s Order 2416,” referring to orders entitled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” and “Ending DEI Programs and Gender Ideology Extremism.”

With that in mind:

 Who controls the present controls the past.

--George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four

Quips and Quotations (Who Says Empowerment Can't Be Fun Edition)

 

Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel. It gives a woman a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. It makes her feel as if she were independent... the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood.

--Susan B. Anthony

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore

  

 

 

"911. What is the address of the emergency?"

"1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. A little girl just bounced off the roof of a Tesla parked out front."

Quips and Quotations (Renaissance Man Edition)

 

 

I play it cool

And dig all jive

That’s the reason

I stay alive.

 

My motto,

As I live and learn,

            is:

Dig And Be Dug

In Return.

--Langston Hughes

Graphic Grandeur (Sketch as Sketch Can Edition)

 

1929-2025

 Shortly after A Bonfire of the Vanities came out, Tom Wolfe wrote an essay that took novelists of the day to task for wasting all their prose on navel-gazing and not directing their attention on society at large (as he had just done with Vanities.) Another way of putting it is these novelists were putting the personal over the political, and it needed to stop. While I understood Wolfe's point, I wondered why does it have to be one or the other. After all, society is composed of people with, well, navels. And while they may prefer we think of them as giants that walk the Earth, politicians are people, too, and can like anybody, can take things personally (which we may be seeing played out at the moment.) Isn't there a novelist out there capable of a balancing act between our innermost thoughts and the world's outermost outbursts? 

Not a novelist, as it turned out, but a cartoonist. Jules Feiffer was his name. Starting in 1956 in the alternative newspaper The Village Voice, the comic strip Sick, Sick, Sick, (later syndicated to mainstream newspapers as Feiffer), there is no need to divide your attention between the personal and the political, as you can now look at them as two sides (one with a belly-button, the other with a commander-in-chief) of the same coin:

 

 

 

 

 

Just as navel-gazing and socioeconomics both coexist in the same world, so too does comic strips and other forms of media that Feiffer also dabbled in from time to time such as plays, screenplays, novels, children's books, and this Oscar-winning animated short from 1960:  

 I know it's dated, but they could always bring the draft back. After all, Greenland awaits.