From CBS News: "Forty-two percent of Americans now say same sex couples should be allowed to legally marry, a new CBS News/New York Times poll finds. That's up nine points from last month, when 33 percent supported legalizing same sex marriage."

This was my first bike, the Screamer Spyder from Sears. Note the big tire in the back and small one in the front, as well as the butterfly handlebars and 5-speed stick shift. I got it for my sixth birthday - well technically no, since on my birthday I sat patiently on the sidewalk all day waiting for the Sears delivery truck that never arrived. So I waited all day in the Florida heat the next day,and still the gleaming machine didn't arrive. This went on for two weeks.
Once it did appear, I was thrilled and the time lost to the inept delivery man quickly turned to joy. I proudly rode it to the first day of school in 1969, and it was promptly stolen. It turned up a couple of years later, quite bashed up and worse for wear, in a local police department auction that my stepfather was clued into...but my gleaming masterpiece had been tainted by some petty thief and I never rode it again.

I took a fun little trip to the Emergency Room on Wednesday morning after experiencing chest pain and numbness in my left arm all night. After spending the night for observation with many tests (including getting radioactive isotopes injected into my veins, thank you very much) my heart appears to be fine, but the weird painful symptoms persist. Some observations:

• The rubber mattresses now being used on hospital beds gather your body heat and reflect it back at you. And you sweat. A lot.

• The food delivery might be called "Room Service," but it's still sucky hospital food.

• Do they REALLY have to wake you every hour during the night to take your blood pressure? It's 2009, can't this be automated?

• People over six feet tall are too long for gurneys.

• They don't call it a "Cardiac Stress Test" for nothing.

• ALL firefighters and EMTs arriving in the ER are HOT.

From Jane Lynch, a hilarious parody of that horrible right-wing-sponsored "Gathering Storm" video. Lots of cool cameos - watch!

It's official: A face lift and a bucket o' Botox has tranfromed whiny, aging serial complainer Rupert Everett into Rachel Maddow.

Finally got around to watching a recording of the premiere episode of CBS' new slasher series "Harper's Island." And yeah, it was sorta violent in a watered-down "Saw" kinda way, but really not as gory as the reviews led me to believe, with the more sedate moments about as cheesy as an episode of "Melrose Place." All I have to say is, what the heck is up with the hair styles?!? Most of the men had this shag thing going on, and seriously, it's a look that's kinda played out. And if geeky-adorable groom Christopher Gorham (really, his character's name is "Henry," AGAIN?) is not the killer, I will eat a bug.

Even though I was technically too old to be playing with this when it came out in 1974, the Playskool Holiday Inn playset that my little brother owned frequently served as the backdrop for the innumerable melodramas and comedy sketches that I dreamt up when I was a kid. Scenes were played out in the lobby, restaurant and of course the bedrooms, whose placement one over the other served as the basis for hilarious comedy. The cast included a white shaggy dog, as I remember. Endless fun when paired with Playskool McDonald's - those workers behind the counter were actually evil automatons!

Via blog.deleteyourself.com.

This map, based on the calculations of the brilliant (and spookily accurate) Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight.com, shows when we can expect gay marriage to finally be legal across the United States. See you at the big party sometime between 2021 and 2024, that is if the world hasn't ended by then.

From the Associated Press:
White House invites gay families to Easter event

"The White House is allocating tickets for the upcoming Easter Egg Roll to gay and lesbian families as part of the Obama administration's outreach to diverse communities. Families say the gesture shows that the new Democratic administration values them as equal to other families. And for many, being included in the annual tradition — dating to 1878 — renews hope that they will have more support in their quest for equal rights in matters such as marriage and adoption than under the previous administration."

Talk about being on a roll! Washington DC's City Council has voted unanimously to recognize same-sex marriages performed in states where such unions are legal. Once the D.C. city legislation is given final approval by the city council, it is subject to review by the federal Congress...possibly setting up a battle royale with conservative members of the House and Senate.

Wow...Vermont approved marriage equality today! By a vote of 100-49, the Vermont House of Representatives overode Governor Jim Douglas' veto, making Vermont the fourth state where same-sex marriage is now legal. And significantly, Vermont is the first to do so legislatively.

If you know who these people are then we shared a common experience in the late 70s and early 80s. It was a daily ritual for me after coming home from school. Come September, the show will go off the air after 72 years.

Iowa's Supreme Court legalized gay marriage Friday in a nanimous and emphatic decision that makes Iowa the third state - and first in the nation's heartland - to allow same-sex couples to wed.
Reaction from the conservative right: "OH MY GOD, NOT IOWA!!!"
Sarah Palin's "Real America" just got a little more "real," wouldn't you say?