From the ‘Rum, Sodomy and the Lash’ file, the Chicago Reader’s (Sept. 4) ‘Straight Dope’ column talks about ‘rampant buggery’ in the Royal Navy in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. In brief, it was there, it was pervasive (all-male environment, after all) but it was probably not blatant. Apparently the Austrian and French navies took the whole thing more in stride; the British hung people, including one Captain Henry Allen. On the other hand, the last British naval execution for this was in 1829.
From the ‘Talented Bottom’ file, the Chicago Reader’s (Sept. 4) ‘News of the Weird’ column tells us that Graham Butterfield (a semi-appropriate name) has had his tush insured for $2 million by the bedding company SilentNight, which he works for. By bouncing his buns Butterfield’s bottom can recognize minute differences in fillings & fabrics. ‘It may sound ridiculous, but my bottom really isn’t like any other,’ Butterfield said. One has had boyfriends who claimed the same.
From the ‘Made Over’ file, the New Yorker (Sept. 1) profiles Marc Jacobs, the fashion designer who ‘… used to be a chubby Jewish guy with long hair and glasses’ but is now looking ‘… like a cartoon superhero: muscular, bronzed, shining with diamonds.’ Not plump, no glasses and short hair. He and whoever his current boyfriend is are heavy ammunition for the gossip blogs and columns. He has ‘perfect’ tattooed on his wrist, smokes constantly and he designed virtually all the clothes in the flick Sex and the City, including those handbags that look like suitcases made in a machine shop for wealthy refugees.
From the ‘Didn’t You Used to be …’ file, The New York Times (Sept. 4), in its ‘Life’s Work’ column, tells of the situation of the transgendered in large corporations in the USA: It’s a bit suprising, but ‘ [a] cross the country, particularly at larger companies, transgendered workers are being protected and assisted in ways that were hardly imaginable a few years ago.’ Four hundred of the Fortune 500 are to be at the Out and Equal Workplace Summit—a conference for the LGBT community—in Austin, Texas, later in September. Even more surprising, research finds that ‘diversity is a powerful recruiting tool.’ New hires are interested in a company’s inclusive policies and how progressive companies are.
From the ‘Harry Potte and the Mystery of Maybelline’ file, the Chicago Tribune (Sept. 3) reports that star Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe would like some new roles: ‘I think part of me would love to play a drag queen, just because it would be an excuse to wear loads of eye make-up.’ But he’d probably have to pluck his caterpillar eyebrows.
From the ‘Mormon Wives and Tossed Out Boys’ file, the New Yorker (Sept. 8) thinks we should check out a new novel, The 19th Wife, by David Ebershoff, a double story about the expulsion of one of Mormon co-founder Brigham Young’s wives and a modern gay teenager excommunicated from the church.