As I did in 2007, to mark the passing of one year to another I thought would once again emulate the wonderful Mayfy Project and try to sum up the past twelve months in just 24 words. Mayfly creator Meg Pickard believes that embracing the constraint of summing up the last year in a handful of words helps to focus on what has really mattered. Here are mine:
Philip. Wedding. Jake. Love. Work. Stress. Egypt. Jordan. Lanai. True Colors. Obama. Prop 8. Absent friends. 22nd anniversary. Happiness and tears. op. No regrets.

From Cake Wrecks, my favorite baked treats this holiday season:

Please Don't Divorce Us!
A link to a very cool slide show that shows the human side of the race to nullify thousands of same sex marriages in California.

From cornpone queen Paula Deen we have a dish called "The Lady's Brunch Burger." Yeah, I don't know what lady is eating this - it's a hamburger topped with a fried egg and bacon, served on a glazed doughnut. Ingredients 1 1/2 pounds ground beef 3 tablespoons freshly chopped parsley leaves 2 tablespoons grated onion House Seasoning 2 tablespoons butter 3 eggs 6 slices bacon, cooked 3 hamburger buns 3 English muffins 6 glazed donuts Directions Mix the ground beef, chopped parsley and grated onion together in a large mixing bowl. Season liberally, with House Seasoning. Form 3 hamburger patties. Heat a large cast iron skillet over medium-high heat and spray with non-stick cooking spray. Add the burgers and cook until desired temperature, 4 to 5 minutes per side for medium-rare. Fry bacon in a hot pan until crisp. Remove and drain on paper towels. Set aside. While burgers are cooking, heat a non-stick pan, over medium heat. Add 2 tablespoons butter. Crack 3 eggs into the pan. Cook until the yolks are just set and still slightly runny and remove. Place burger patties on English muffins or buns, and if desired, on glazed donuts, as the buns. Top each burger with 2 pieces of bacon and a fried egg.

This is James Joseph Cialella of Philadelphia. A father and son were talking during a Christmas day screening of “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” Talking during a movie is extremely rude, so Mr. Cialella decided to put a stop to it. By shooting the father in the left arm with a .380-caliber handgun. He then sat back down and continued watching the movie, while everyone around him fled the theater and the police rushed to the scene. Psychopath or heroic vigilante: you be the judge. (Well, the shooter is crazy. But it IS annoying when people talk during a movie, even when they are small children, and it's Christmas. Did I tell you about the time this twenty-something gal in the row behind me put her dirty shoe next to my head during a screening of "Casino Royale?")

When I was a kid we used to run outside on Christmas morning and tell our friends what Santa had brought us. He was very nice to me this year! I got:

USB Cassette Adapter (transfers your cassette tapes to MP3s) Ultimate Ears Super.Fi Headphones "Mystery of the Abbey" Board Game "Arkham Horror" Board Game "Wii Music"

"TV Show King Party" for Wii "The Price is Right" for Wii The latest installment of "Futurama" on DVD Season 1 of "Pushing Daisies" on DVD A pair of blue jeans

Clairisonic Face Scrubbing System A wallet A neck scarf Department store gift cards and a bunch of edible goodies, including "Redneck Spices"

From the 1971 Sears Wish Book, my favorite toys of that year:

The GI Joe Action Adventurer Talking Commander and his Scout Helicopter. Wow, I loved patrolling the backyard with that big yellow copter with its clear windscreen - it was HUGE!

Melissa Etheridge writes about Rev. Rick Warren on The Huffington Post today:

"This is a message for my brothers and sisters who have fought so long and so hard for gay rights and liberty. We have spent a long time climbing up this mountain, looking at the impossible, changing a thousand year-old paradigm. We have asked for the right to love the human of our choice, and to be protected equally under the laws of this great country. The road at times has been so bloody, and so horrible, and so disheartening. From being blamed for 9/11 and Katrina, to hateful crimes committed against us, we are battle weary. We watched as our nation took a step in the right direction, against all odds and elected Barack Obama as our next leader. Then we were jerked back into the last century as we watched our rights taken away by prop 8 in California. Still sore and angry we felt another slap in the face as the man we helped get elected seemingly invited a gay-hater to address the world at his inauguration.

I hadn't heard of Pastor Rick Warren before all of this. When I heard the news, in its neat little sound bite form that we are so accustomed to, it painted the picture for me. This Pastor Rick must surely be one hate spouting, money grabbing, bad hair televangelist like all the others. He probably has his own gay little secret bathroom stall somewhere, you know. One more hater working up his congregation to hate the gays, comparing us to pedophiles and those who commit incest, blah blah blah. Same 'ole thing. Would I be boycotting the inauguration? Would we be marching again?

Well, I have to tell you my friends, the universe has a sense of humor and indeed works in mysterious ways. As I was winding down the promotion for my Christmas album I had one more stop last night. I'd agreed to play a song I'd written with my friend Salman Ahmed, a Sufi Muslim from Pakistan. The song is called "Ring The Bells," and it's a call for peace and unity in our world. We were going to perform our song for the Muslim Public Affairs Council, a group of Muslim Americans that tries to raise awareness in this country, and the world, about the majority of good, loving, Muslims. I was honored, considering some in the Muslim religion consider singing to be against God, while other Muslim countries have harsh penalties, even death for homosexuals. I felt it was a very brave gesture for them to make. I received a call the day before to inform me of the keynote speaker that night... Pastor Rick Warren. I was stunned. My fight or flight instinct took over, should I cancel? Then a calm voice inside me said, "Are you really about peace or not?"

I told my manager to reach out to Pastor Warren and say "In the spirit of unity I would like to talk to him." They gave him my phone number. On the day of the conference I received a call from Pastor Rick, and before I could say anything, he told me what a fan he was. He had most of my albums from the very first one. What? This didn't sound like a gay hater, much less a preacher. He explained in very thoughtful words that as a Christian he believed in equal rights for everyone. He believed every loving relationship should have equal protection. He struggled with proposition 8 because he didn't want to see marriage redefined as anything other than between a man and a woman. He said he regretted his choice of words in his video message to his congregation about proposition 8 when he mentioned pedophiles and those who commit incest. He said that in no way, is that how he thought about gays. He invited me to his church, I invited him to my home to meet my wife and kids. He told me of his wife's struggle with breast cancer just a year before mine.

When we met later that night, he entered the room with open arms and an open heart. We agreed to build bridges to the future.

Brothers and sisters the choice is ours now. We have the world's attention. We have the capability to create change, awesome change in this world, but before we change minds we must change hearts. Sure, there are plenty of hateful people who will always hold on to their bigotry like a child to a blanket. But there are also good people out there, Christian and otherwise that are beginning to listen. They don't hate us, they fear change. Maybe in our anger, as we consider marches and boycotts, perhaps we can consider stretching out our hands. Maybe instead of marching on his church, we can show up en mass and volunteer for one of the many organizations affiliated with his church that work for HIV/AIDS causes all around the world.

Maybe if they get to know us, they wont fear us.

I know, call me a dreamer, but I feel a new era is upon us.

I will be attending the inauguration with my family, and with hope in my heart. I know we are headed in the direction of marriage equality and equal protection for all families.

Happy Holidays my friends and a Happy New Year to you.

Peace on earth, goodwill toward all men and women... and everyone in-between."

Michael Derry at Troy Comics pretty much sums up how a lot of gay folks feel about Barack Obama's choice to have right-winger Rev. Rick Warren officiate at his inauguration.

Sponsors of the Proposition 8, the California ballot measure that banned same-sex marriage, are now seeking to nullify the 18,000 same-sex marriages performed in the state after the Supreme Court ruled them constitutional. Wow! An early gift placed under my tree! Merry Christmas!

• Exclamations of "Awesome!"
• Children named "Caylee"
• "Mavericks"
• Pseudo-plumbers and their pseudonyms
• "You betcha!"
• Somali pirates
• Hasselbecks
• Prop 8
• Magic underpants
• Public rudeness
• Bailouts
• Michael Phelps attempting to do anything but swim
• Anything starring Matthew McConaughey, Owen Wilson or Vince Vaughn
• Dirty airplane interiors and baggage fees
• Purchasing beer at drugstores, with pennies and a baby on your arm

President Bush's official portrait was unveiled at the Smithsonian today. This is how he greeted it. Kind of sums things up, no?

Beamin' at you from 1977: "The Carpenters at Christmas" with special guests Kristy McNichol and Harvey Korman!

Just in time for Christmas, a Japanese TV program humiliates cats by placing them in cutesy outfits for your enjoyment.

Michael Jackson did some Christmas shopping in Los Angeles yesterday. Odd and frightening, yes, but the scariest of all the images? The backseat of the limo:

What's with the photo collage of babies? Chills. And not the Christmas snow kind.

Florida Governor Charlie Crist married businesswoman Carole Rome in St. Pete last night. I guess gay people CAN get married in Florida!

Nothing quite satisfies the craving for fried breaded fish, processed orange cheese, and gloppy, tangy, pickle-studded mayonnaise on a soft, squishy bun. And if there is enough tartar sauce dripped out to dunk the fries in, even better. Yea or Nay?
(When I'm sick this is one food I always get a craving for...and apparently they're a detainee favorite at Guantanamo Bay...not sure what either of those things mean.)

An ingenious use of the materials at hand yields a useful iPhone accessory for your next plane flight. Hey, it sure beats letting your arm get all tired out from holding it up trying to watch a feature length film! Source: Hodenmumps.to

Just in time for the holidays, I have a few questions surrounding the Rankin/Bass "AniMagic" specials that helped shape my childhood:

If this troubled elf's name is Hermey, why does everyone call him "Herbie?"

What exactly was the problem that made this doll a "misfit?"

And if Snow Miser and Heat Miser are both Mother Natures' sons, why does Snow Miser refer to Heat Miser as his "step-brother?" They would be half-brothers, no? And what kind of marriage / divorce sequence went on there?

Am I the only male in his mid-forties that read these weird "Partridge Family" mysteries as a kid? Weird because, really, were the Partridges normally in the habit of solving mysteries? It's like an alternate universe version of the TV show in which the comedy is replaced by ominous crime and danger. I have to say that "The Haunted Hall," "Terror by Night" and "Marked for Terror" scared the crap out of me when I was a tween. I bailed after #14, oddly entitled "Thirteen at Killer Gorge" (couldn't they have made this one #13??)

I am oddly intrigued with this show on the Planet Green channel, "supperclub with Tom Bergeron." As pretentious as the purposeful run-together lower-capitalization of the title implies, viewers are treated as silent guests at a "green" dinner party hosted by semi-annoying Tom Bergeron in an "eco-friendly" house in Venice, California. Ay yi yi! The most recent one had a panel of guests that included the faintly self-righteous founder of TreePeople and Albert Brooks' brother, Bob Einstein, who was cantankerous and annoying to everyone in attendance. Seriously, he has become more whiny than Larry David if that's even possible. The most compelling element? The "Sturgeon Confit" was prepared by Harrison Ford's unbelievably magnetic son, chef Ben Ford:

Fascinated as I am with airline travel, and especially the horrible artwork sometimes presented on the safety cards in the seatback pocket in front of you, I present:

Is that Willy Wonka running for the exit slide in illustration five? Source: i36.tinypic.com.

And can I say that after laying in bed for a week, drifting in and out of consciousness with the TV on, I come away with this one pervading thought: we must stop the overuse of the exclamation "Awesome!" in our culture immediately. I mean it. Examples that I can remember during the past week:

• Discovery Channel's "Cash Cab": "We had an awesome time!"

• Discovery Channel's "Mythbusters": Whenever there is an explosion - "Awesome!"

• Food Network: Practically every other word out of Guy Fieri's mouth is "Awesome!" The butter is "Awesome!" The broiled steak is "Awesome!"

• Bravo: "The Real Housewives of Orange County" think they invented the word.

• Travel Channel's "Walt Disney World Tips": "Awesome job!" (This was yelled at a child disembarking from the Buzz Lightyear attraction.) Moments later, mother says "Let's head to another ride" to which the response is "Awesome!" Then a minute or two later we are told that the food at the Wilderness Lodge is "awesome!" I had to turn away before my head exploded.

There are scores more examples, but they are lost to my NyQuil haze. Please people, I beseech you...when you hear this exclaimed for some rather ordinary event, politely inform the speaker that it really isn't necessary to classify EVERYTHING as AWESOME!

...like this little bit of fun, "Prop 8 - The Musical." In case you haven't already seen it, the comedic song-and-dance diatribe about the California ballot initiative against same-sex marriage was written and assembled in less than a week by "Hairspray" composer Marc Shaiman and stars a cast of dozens, including John C. Reilly, Allison Janney, Neil Patrick Harris, Margaret Cho, Maya Rudolph and Jack Black as Jesus. In just one day on the net, it became an instant sensation, receiving more than 1.2 million hits. Naturally, the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission now wants an apology from Mr. Black and the other participants...mostly because Jack Black is fat and Jesus was not - they feel obliged to mention his being "rotund" in their letter of outrage.

...and I haven't posted since the Sunday after Thanksgiving because I've been terribly sick with a viral respiratory infection. I have been unable to get out of bed all damn week! Taking massive amounts of antibiotics and fluids and am finally able to sit up and use the computer today...although I now feel like I am at the level of normal sick - just racking cough, sneezing and occasional chills. Wow, seems like I missed a lot in the world...