The Daily Sheet April 16 - 30, 2009

[Stilllearning]

Saturday, April 18th, 2009

Dave to Appear on Oprah on Monday! Dave taped the Oprah show on last Wednesday to talk to her about his experiences with Columbine, and it will be aired on Monday, April 20, the anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre. It will be a memorial for the students killed 10 years ago that very day. Oprah was very complimentary about Dave's book, but says she could only read it during the daytime! She mentions specifically how Chapter 11 was particularly gripping to read. Other guests on the show presenting their points of view include Kate Battan from the Jefferson County sheriff's office, and Dwayne Fuselier, an FBI supervisory special agent. The Columbine principal in 1999, Frank DeAngelis, appears on the program via Skype. He is still the principal of Columbine High School. Read more. Source: oprahshow.com

Update from Dave, Sunday, April 19

The Harpo producers asked me to share this statement:
Due to a production decision, the Columbine episode will not air Monday.

---

The info posted yesterday was correct at the time, but a new decision was made.
I hope to have more information early in the week, and will share it as quickly as possible.

Thanks to everyone for your support. The book is still doing great. Whether or not the show
airs at a later date, it was a wonderful experience and I think the world of Oprah and the Harpo team.

Oprah personally was gracious with my family, a kindness I will never forget.

d

Columbine Debuts #7 on the New York Times Best Seller List After watching the taping of the Oprah program, Dave's family joined him and the Fuseliers at a nearby restaurant for a brief celebration. The publicist from Twelve, Columbine's publisher, caused everyone to cheer when he announced that Dave's book would be making its debut on the all-important NY Times nonfiction bestseller list as #7. This was especially great news since this happened before the airing of the Oprah show. Congratulations, Dave! Here's hoping that the Oprah bump is a big one! Click HERE for the New York Times Best Seller list.

Lee, Schamus Discuss Film Collaborations

"Speaking at Zellerbach Hall Monday night, Ang Lee and James Schamus brought their passion for cinema to the Berkeley campus. As scenes from The Ice Storm played overhead, the two luminaries discussed everything from cinematic subtexts to work habits and future collaborations, treating the audience to a rich discourse on the nuances of the filmmaking process. For Schamus, the experience has added significance: The producer-screenwriter earned his bachelor's, master's and PhD degrees, all in English, here at UC Berkeley. "... From intimate dramas (Eat Drink Man Woman) to rich period pieces (Sense and Sensibility) to romantic epics (Brokeback Mountain), Lee and Schamus have created a body of work as varied as anything the cinema world has seen. Yet unlike many specific-minded auteurs of yesteryear, the two men avoid one-dimensionality with admirable acumen. Their films don't defy genre conventions as much as blend and unite them. Switch the films in the aforementioned categories around, and the characterizations remain palpably apt." Read more. Source: dailycal.org

The Desert That Breaks Annie Proulx's Heart

"In the same way that Stupich refuses to photograph Red-Desert-the-unpeopled-fiction, Proulx refuses to write about Wyoming-the-dream -- Yellowstone geysers, the Tetons at sunset, rugged cowboys riding the range. That people should be so caught up in prettiness and myth is a kind of ignorance, and it maddens her; she traffics in Wyoming-the-reality -- "full of poor, hardworking transients," as she writes in her second of three volumes of Wyoming short stories. "Tough as nails and restless, going where the dollars grew. "Proulx moved to Wyoming from Vermont in 1994 and right away went about challenging the notion that you can't know the West -- or write about it -- unless you were born and raised here. Close Range: Wyoming Stories, the collection that includes Brokeback Mountain, came out in 1999 to acclaim from critics who invariably used words like "gritty" and "hardscrabble" and "flinty" to describe Proulx's characters -- people as trapped in the terrible dramas of their small lives as in the boom-bust cycles endemic to rural places in general and Wyoming in particular. "Red Desert, which went on sale in December, comes on the heels of Fine Just The Way It Is, Proulx's final book, she says, of Wyoming stories, published in September. The title is taken from a typically clipped declarative used by a rancher in the book to describe Wyomingites' aversion to change. The stories are set largely in and around the Red Desert, and their darkness and stripped-down characters grow out of the country's harshness and history. ..." Read more. Source: hcn.org

Michelle: My Healing After Heath

"A few kilometres from the glitz of Manhattan, Michelle Williams is sitting in a deserted Brooklyn bar, picking uneasily at the candle wax on the table.     "It is three years since she earned an Oscar nomination for her performance as Heath Ledger’s spurned wife in Brokeback Mountain; a year since Ledger, Williams’ former fiance and the father of her daughter, died of a prescription drugs overdose, and nine months since she last set foot on a film set.     '“Work can be great to get you through certain crises,” she says, “to have something that you have to show up at and something that generally passes the time.”     "But Ledger’s accidental death, and the media firestorm that followed, presented a crisis that, she says, she simply couldn’t work through." Read more. Source: thewest.com.au

Minnelli Urges Get Happy Filmmakers to Stay 'Positive'

"While speaking to Canada's Citytv, Liza Minnelli commented on the planned Judy Garland bio film GET HAPPY and urged filmmakers to avoid focusing on her late mother's drug addiction in the upcoming project. "Actress Anne Hathaway has been cast as The Wizard Of Oz star and will also be singing her hits as part of the Weinstein Company's planned theatre and film project, based on biographer Gerald Clarke's 2001 book Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland. Minnelli has approved of casting Hathaway in the role - but is convinced the new versions must focus on her mother's talent instead of her well-documented personal problems reports the news service. She told Canada's Citytv, "Well, I love Anne Hathaway. And I hope that it's a good movie and I hope that it's true. You know, that they don't just concentrate on the crap like they usually do." Read more. Source: broadwayworld.com

Gustavo Santaolalla and Bajofondo in San Francisco

Here's your chance to enjoy live music and open dancing to great live band! See Bajofondo tomorrow night at the renowned Bimbo's 365 Club in San Francisco, April 19th at 8pm. Enjoy the musical excellence of "the neuvo fusion collective Bajofondo, a group of eight composers, singers and artists from Argentina and Uruguay combining tango and electronic musical styles into a thing called Electrotango. ... Along with their main ingredient, the neo-tango, this stellar band is well-versed in DNB, house music, chill-out and trip-hop." Check out a video of their song, Pa' Bailar. "Bajofondo's most widely recognized performer, a two-time Grammy winner, Santaolalla is a veteran soundtrack composer having composed music for Michael Mann's The Insider, Babel by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, a track for the Walter Salles film The Motorcycle Diaries and Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain." For ticketing information, visit bimbo365club.com     Source: wikipedia.com

Bringing a Queer Slant to Traditional Ceramics

"Decorative art meets po-mo deconstruction in the work of Léopold L. Foulem, a Montreal and New Brunswick-based artist who cleverly mines a variety of historical forms and ornaments in his conceptual ceramics. ... He deploys both a classical design vocabulary and common dish decals on cups and vases, destroying their functionality by closing them up and extending the patterns over the flat surfaces where the openings would have been. "A series of porcelain vases with metal bases brings an amusing queer slant to traditional ceramics, with cartouches containing a Worcester-style landscape of Brokeback Mountain or silhouettes of two dancing 19th-century dandies." Learn more about the artist, who has been teaching "...for many years in Montréal, at the CÉGEP du Vieux-Montréal and the CÉGEP de Saint-Laurent..." and who "...single-handedly founded a distinct Canadian “school” of contemporary ceramics, often exploring themes of gay sexuality and identity."  Read more. Source: nowtoronto.com and gardinermuseum.on.ca Léopold L. Foulem, Returning from Brokeback Mountain, ceramic and found objects.  Click for larger view.

A Thread in Our Cultural Fabric

"John Quinlan talks with author Will Fellows about the timeless relevance that helped inspire Brokeback Mountain - the collection of narratives in Fellows' Farm Boys. "JQ: Rumor is that, here in the Madison area, many of the gay men you've wrote about in Farm Boys have connected with each other, and created their own sense of supportive community, even gathering for periodic reunions. What about their shared life experiences, and the experience of telling their stories in your book, continues to connect them in this way? "WF: Those fabulous farm boys! It's great to know that some of them are bonding like this. I'm grateful to them all for telling me their stories way back when. I hope they've shared in the pleasure of knowing that the book has made its way into the hands of readers for whom it has been life-changing, even life-saving. Knowing that a play inspired by the book has had productions in New York, St. Paul, and San Francisco. Knowing that their stories were read by Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger as they prepared for their performances in Brokeback Mountain." Read more. Source: ourlivesmadison.com  Farm Boys is available in our forum store.

The Reviews Keep Streaming In

“Dave Cullen, a journalist who disseminated mistaken information for a while and then decided to get it right, has written a remarkable book. It is painstakingly reported, well-organized and compellingly written . . . For any reader who wants to understand the complicated nature of evil, this book is a masterpiece.” -- Steve Weinberg, The Seattle Times     Read more.                       Buy Columbine. Check out the Columbine trailer on YouTube. Keep abreast of what's happening at The DC Chronicles.

Schedule of Dave Cullen's appearances for Columbine

For more information, visit his facebook page, which offers details on each specific appearance, and enables you to RSVP if you can attend one of the events. Tuesday, April 21, 2009 at 7:00pm, Borders, 2120 Southgate Rd., Colorado Springs, CO Saturday, April 25, 2009 at 3:30pm, LA Times Festival of Books, UCLA campus, Westwood, CA   Dave will discuss his new book on stage with LA Times Books Editor David Ulin. Monday, April 27, 2009 at 7:00pm, University Bookstore, 4326 University Way, NE, Seattle, WA Wednesday, April 29, 2009 at 7:30pm, Books Inc., 301 Castro St., Mountain View, CA Schedule subject to change; please check with venues to confirm.

Radio Shows for Columbine

Monday, April 20th is the ten year anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre. Dave will be on the radio doing some interviews on that day. Here's a list of his scheduled radio appearances: (Please check your local radio stations for the actual broadcast times as they may vary.) • NPR Talk of the Nation - This is being recorded at noon MDT. • Ron Reagan Show on Air America - recorded at 6pm MDT. • The Jim Bohannon Show - recorded at 8pm MDT. • The World Famous Phil Hendrie Show - 11:30pm MDT.

A Warm Welcome to TDS

The staff of The Daily Sheet would like extend a hearty welcome back to marge_innavera, who is now helping to create the Tuesday editions of TDS. gnash will continue to take care of the Saturday edition. We'd like to also remind readers that we count on you to send us your news items, questions, and nominations for posts of the day. Send them to tds@davecullen.com

WikiWhat?

Today's WikiWhat? is pure and simple, with a twist. Brush up on your knowledge of Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger, and see if you agree with that's been posted about them lately. How many of you have seen the animated short Jake narrated? Did you see him in those issues of People Magazine? What would Batman Begins have been like if Jake donned the mask instead of Christian Bale? And where are the lifeguard pics? Who is Trevor DiCarlo? Find out when you read about Heath. While you're at it, why not take a look at the multi-faceted talents of David Trimble. Who's he? Well, just ask Wiki. Just kidding. That's a different David, as you can see. For more information on David Trimble as Brokeback Mountain fans may remember him, check out his wonderful interview over on findingbrokeback.com. That's right -- he's the actor that played The Basque so wonderfully.

Photo of the Day

By Rei-gyoku in Life Through The Lens 3

Cherry Blossoms are IN!

Quote of the Day

“The film industry is about saying ‘no’ to people, and inherently you cannot take ‘no’ for an answer.”

~ James Cameron ~

Photocaption of the Day

By Sason in Photo Captioning Fun 4

There was something Jack had been meaning to tell Ennis for a long time,
but didn't rightly know when to do it.
One day he spilled the beans.

Contributors: Rei-gyoku, Sason

Calendar of Events

If you have ideas about initiating a gathering, go to Start Your Own Threads
and get the ball rolling to plan a get-together near you.

Man Dance Company
San Francisco - July 10-12, 2009

Let us know of any events you’d like listed here.

The Daily Sheet is a production of The Ultimate Brokeback Forum at www.davecullen.com/forum.

Editors emeritae: CactusGal, Marge_Innavera, tellyouwhat, Stilllearning, MissYouSoMuch

Researchers: BayCityJohn, BrokenOkie, Killersmom, Kittyhawk, Marge_Innavera, Stilllearning

Formatters: denim girl, gnash

Today’s edition formatted by gnash

We count on you to send us your news items, questions, and nominations for posts of the day.
If you have items you’d like to see published, send them to tds@davecullen.com.

To subscribe to The Daily Sheet, click the “Notify” button at the top or bottom of the page.
When a new issue of TDS is posted, you will be notified by e-mail.

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[Stilllearning]

Tuesday, April 21st, 2009

Inside Columbine - from Slate.com

Here are some short excerpts from Dave Cullen's Columbine. The events take place on April 20, 1999, minutes after the shooting started. "Dave Sanders was just a few feet from safety when the first shot hit him. He saw the killers, spun around, and ran for the corner, trying to save a few more students on the way there." "It was like they were carrying out executions," another boy in the room said. "You would hear a shot. Then there would be quiet. Then another shot. Bam. Bam. Bam." "Aaron Hancey, a junior and an Eagle Scout, stepped up. ... I could feel it through the walls," Aaron said. "With each [blast], I could feel the walls move." "Someone turned on the giant TV suspended from the ceiling. They kept the volume off but the subtitles on. It was their school, from the outside. Much of the class was transfixed at first, but attention waned quickly. Nobody seemed to know anything." Read more. Source: slate.com

Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold during the Columbine attack.

Holocaust Remembrance Day: the gay casualties

Since the world learned about the horrors of the Holocaust in the early 1950s it's been the subject of hundreds of books: a search of the terms "Holocaust" and "Shoah" on Amazon.com alone turns up 1,434 items.  In most sources, the deaths of thousands of gays, particularly gay men, go unacknowledged.   In the US, neither President Jimmy Carter's Commission on the Holocaust nor the first US Holocaust Memorial Council, the nexus of the creation of the Holocaust Museum in Washington, admitted their existence. This changed in 1983, thanks to new Council members Elie Weisel, George Washington University Law Professor Monroe H. Freedman and a number of gay activists including Craig Howell and the Gay Activists Alliance of Washington. Their efforts led not only to the inclusion of gay Shoah victims in the US Holocaust Museum but to the rediscovery of historians such as Professor Ruediger Lautmann. Lautmann's research, a foundation of later books on the subject, gave an estimate of about 15,000 known victims. Despite their smaller numbers, their death rate in concentration camps was among the highest of any group. Since then the resources for this era in GLBT history have grown, although it's still the focus of a separate and "respectable" branch of Holocaust denial.  Memorials in a number of countries, including the sites of concentration camps, recognize the deaths of people who are still the "exception" to condemnation of the Holocaust in some circles. More photos of memorials to gay Holocaust victims, in locations ranging from Sydney, Australia to Anchorage, Alaska, can be found at The Memorial Hall.   Mautheusen concentration camp site Laxton, Nottinghamshire, UK  Frankfurt, Germany Sidney, Australia

A number of historical resources have become available and can be purchased online.


The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals   by Richard Plant

In February of 1933, Richard Plant became one of the many people in Germany who left the country in time to avoid what was later called the Holocaust. Plant was not Jewish, a Communist or trade unionist, gypsy or a Jehovah's Witness, but a representative of a group that has, in recent years, become the focus of a separate and "respectable" branch of Holocaust deniers: he was gay.  Plant first moved to Switzerland and again to the United States five years later, eventually working for the United States Office of War Information as a translator, scriptwriter and-broadcaster. This book, published in 1986, is a resource for a number of more recent publications. The Hidden Holocaust?: Gay and Lesbian Persecution in Germany 1933-45   by Gunter Grau Another thoroughly researched group, this book includes an 8-page essay by Claudia Schoppmann on "The Position of Lesbian Women in the Nazi Period." The Men with the Pink Triangle: The True Life-and-Death Story of Homosexuals in the Nazi Death Camps by Hans Heger; translated by David Fernbach, introduction by Klaus Muller This book opens with a statement by 88-year-old gay Holocaust survivor Friedrich-Paul von Groszheim: "I'm living proof that Hitler didn't win."  But the author himself was a Holocaust survivor, having spent six years at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. This is one of the earliest sources, and was republished in 1994.

Paragraph 175  directed by Jeffrey Friedman and Rob Epstein



A documentary that covers the status of gays in pre-Nazi Germany
and includes rare footage of interviews with survivors. Available for
purchase at Amazon, and for rent at Netflix.

See a complete review of Paragraph 175 in the November 9, 2006 edition of the Daily Sheet.

The Mel and Tony Show

Rev. Mel White of Soulforce and Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council appeared on Anderson Cooper’s AC360 show (CNN) on Monday, April 13.  White and Perkins argued over the future of politicized religion and Rick Warren's contradictory statements about marriage equality, with Rev. White slamming the Religious Right's claim to 'love homosexuals.' Click on the image to view the video.

"Not an attack but a glitch"

After being bombarded with complaints about the sudden re-ranking of books with GLBT themes as 'adult', and their subsequent disappearance from rankings, Amazon announced that their action had not been deliberate. Publishers Weekly reported that according to an Amazon spokesperson, "a glitch had occurred in its sales ranking feature that was in the process of being fixed. The spokesperson added that there was no new adult policy." In the meantime, our forum's Beyond Brokeback: The Impact of a Film now ranks #51,414 on overall book sales, #5 for Gay & Lesbian History, #6 for Gay & Lesbian Literary Criticism and 21 for Gay & Lesbian Biographies & Memoirs.

Being Your Own Down-Low Lawyer

Universal Studios has been awarded 55% of their attorney fees and costs in the conclusion of a lawsuit brought by a woman who claimed that Brokeback Mountain -- both Annie Proulx’ short story and the film -- were based on her own work. Janice Scott-Blanton had claimed that her novel, My Husband Is On the Down Low and I Know About It, was the real source of the story and screenplay.  The court had ruled in favor of Universal, awarding them $65,101 in fees and $450 in costs. Scott-Blanton protested that the fees were “outrageous”, but the US District Court for the District of Columbia believed that this might be a deterrent to frivolous lawsuits of this kind. The 45% reduction was given in view of the fact that the plaintiff was representing herself rather than hiring an attorney. Read the whole decision  here.

Who are they callin "down low"?

The Reviews Keep Streaming In

“Dave Cullen, a Web journalist who covered the tragedy, has spent the last decade shining a light into the dark corners of this case, including the minds of the perpetrators. The result is his dark but compelling new book Columbine. . . .  The Columbine backstory was unusually complicated. It involved a law-enforcement coverup, exhaustive media coverage, lawsuits, and federal investigations. Cullen draws together the threads of this tangled narrative in a style that sometimes mimics hard-boiled police detective novels.” -- Christian Science Monitor     Read more.                       New York Times: Challenging Cliches In reviewing Columbine for the New York Times, Jennifer Senior remarks on how effectively the book challenges the cliches that have grown up around the man-made disaster in Colorado ten years ago.  "I expected a story about misfits exacting vengeance," she writes; "because that was my memory of the media consensus — Columbine, right, wasn’t there something going on there between goths and jocks? In fact, Harris and Klebold were killing completely at random that day. Their victims weren’t the intended targets at all; the entire school was. Columbine, it turns out, was a failed attempt at domestic terrorism."  Senior describes the book as "an excellent work of media criticism, showing how legends become truths through continual citation; a sensitive guide to the patterns of public grief, foreshadowing many of the same reactions to Sept. 11 (lawsuits, arguments about the memorial, voyeuristic bus tours); and, at the end of the day, a fine example of old-fashioned journalism." Read the entire review here. Buy Columbine. Check out the Columbine trailer on YouTube. Keep abreast of what's happening at The DC Chronicles.

Schedule of Dave Cullen's appearances for Columbine

For more information, visit his facebook page, which offers details on each specific appearance, and enables you to RSVP if you can attend one of the events. Tuesday, April 21, 2009 at 7:00pm, Borders, 2120 Southgate Rd., Colorado Springs, CO Saturday, April 25, 2009 at 3:30pm, LA Times Festival of Books, UCLA campus, Westwood, CA   Dave will discuss his new book on stage with LA Times Books Editor David Ulin. Monday, April 27, 2009 at 7:00pm, University Bookstore, 4326 University Way, NE, Seattle, WA Wednesday, April 29, 2009 at 7:30pm, Books Inc., 301 Castro St., Mountain View, CA Schedule subject to change; please check with venues to confirm. Radio and TV appearances will be posted in a later issue.

Fun Question of the Week

1965 Chevrolet Impala

This week’s Question: Two 'household names' appeared in advertising, including TV commercials, for Westinghouse in the late 1950s. Who were they? Let us know the answer on the response thread. Last question and answer: What car sold more than one million units in Northern America in 1965, setting a record for the sale of a single year model, that still stands today? The Chevrolet Impala

Time For Spring Flowers

Forum members at the Gardeners' Corner have started sharing photos of
some of spring’s earliest flowers, both in their own gardens and in spectacular public displays.








huntinbuddy has daffodils and hyacinths in his Missouri garden.




fritzkep already has a scarecrow guarding his new vegetable garden.



King's Garden - Copenhagen, Denmark

FIXorSTAND shared a photo of a carpet of crocuses at King's Garden in
Copenhagen, Denmark: "I pass this carpet twice a day, and always have to stop for
a minute or two. It only lasts for a week or 10 days, and is already over now."

Post of the Day

Jenny gave an account in Le Bar Slash about attending one of Dave’s book signings: Speaking of Dave--I finally met him in person last night. Debbie (dejavu) and I went into NYC to his Barnes & Noble event. John (desperandum) turned up, too, though he was late because of work. We had a great time! Dave did an excellent job presenting his book and answering audience questions. We got our books signed and chatted with him. I have a ridiculous proprietary pride in his accomplishment. He's one of ours, ya know? The book is a great read. Yes, it concerns a terrible event and there are descriptions that are hard to get through, but the vast majority of it is devoted to explaining who the killers were and how they developed their plans over about two years, who some of the victims' parents and families were and how their lives were changed, who some of the teachers, investigators and students who survived were, and how all of them dealt with what happened. It's a complex story, but Dave makes it possible to follow all the threads. It's a real page-turner, too. I strongly recommend it.

Quote of the Day

“A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.”

~ Oscar Wilde ~

Forum Humor

Posted by CellarDweller115 in the Gay Marriage thread:

Source: edsteinink.com.

Contributors: CellarDweller115, fritzkep, huntinbuddy, FixorStand, Jenny

Calendar of Events

If you have ideas about initiating a gathering, go to Start Your Own Threads
and get the ball rolling to plan a get-together near you.

Man Dance Company
San Francisco - July 10-12, 2009

Let us know of any events you’d like listed here.

The Daily Sheet is a production of The Ultimate Brokeback Forum at www.davecullen.com/forum.

Editors emeritae: CactusGal, Marge_Innavera, tellyouwhat, Stilllearning, MissYouSoMuch

Researchers: BayCityJohn, BrokenOkie, gnash, Killersmom, Kittyhawk, Marge_Innavera, Stilllearning

Formatters: denim girl, gnash

Today’s edition formatted by denim girl

We count on you to send us your news items, questions, and nominations for posts of the day.
If you have items you’d like to see published, send them to tds@davecullen.com.

To subscribe to The Daily Sheet, click the “Notify” button at the top or bottom of the page.
When a new issue of TDS is posted, you will be notified by e-mail.

The Daily Sheet Archives
Respond to The Daily Sheet

[Stilllearning]

Saturday, April 25th, 2009

Explaining Columbine

"Ten years ago on April 20, students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold marched into Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. and killed 15 people, including themselves. Since then, scores of journalists — and millions of Americans — have tried to make sense of a senseless massacre. No one has done so as thoroughly as Dave Cullen. An investigative journalist, Cullen sped to the scene as the shootings unfolded, and has been reporting the story ever since. In Columbine, released this month, he debunks much of the event's mythology, offers riveting profiles of the two very different killers and chronicles a town's attempts to come to terms with an unthinkable tragedy. TIME spoke to Cullen by telephone about the perils of working on a painful project, the problems with assigning blame and what Columbine has taught us." Read more. Source: time.com

Death of the Strong, Silent Type: The Achievement of Brokeback Mountain

An excerpt from an article by Christopher Sharrett, Professor of Communication and Film Studies at Seton Hall University: American Gothic Ennis’s visit to the Twist homestead in the penultimate scene provides clues to much of the film, and explains why Ennis is necessarily the strong, silent male. If the Twists are representative of the American family, one has little choice, failing truly revolutionary options, but to shut up and put on a determined look that projects courage and conceals pain.   The Twist farmstead, weathered and tumbledown on the outside, incredibly stark and chilly in the interior, is a version of Grant Wood’s much-debated, omnipresent 1933 painting, American Gothic. The painting is indeed gothic, conveying the horror of Middle America as seat of repression and absolute order. The film has its correlates for Wood’s glaring farmer, hand clasping a threatening pitchfork, his female companion averting her gaze, her dress fastened tightly at the neck, and the peaked gothic (which is to say barbaric) gable of their wooden house behind them. John Twist (Peter McRobbie) is almost an Expressionist ghoul from the Weimar cinema, his words to Ennis (laying down the law about Jack’s final resting place) threatening beyond their actual content. Jack’s meek, frightened-looking mother (Roberta Maxwell) is not mentioned by name, even in the final credits, so irrelevant is she to the world around her, and even her own household. If Lureen and Alma are marginal to their worlds (Lureen less so than Alma since she is a somewhat phallicized woman, internalizing the father’s values and running his affairs), Jack’s mother is the film’s final statement about women in patriarchal society—she has learned to mind her place to survive. Her small kindnesses to Ennis certainly don’t go unnoticed by her husband; they are permitted since they don’t disturb the way things are. The mother might be said to suggest a tiny potentiality within an awful setting, but her presence seems more involved in suggesting how the best of humanity can survive regardless of social systems, rather than hope for transformative change in the future.   This small, economical scene is one of the cinema’s most devastating portraits of patriarchal society. Jack’s early comments about the father’s utter failure (‘can’t please my old man, no way’), especially as a mentor (‘never taught me a thing’), find pointed meaning in the scene. As does Ennis’s story about his own father forcing him to look at the body of a dead gay man in a Wyoming drainage ditch, the patriarch both outright murdere(Ennis’s rumination about the father’s complicity is persuasive) and child abuser, his legacy forever imprinted on Ennis’s shattered psyche.

The last scene, with Ennis alone at his trailer, is exceptionally bleak, modified only a little by the arrival of Alma, Jr. and her announcement of her wedding, which momentarily cheers her father – if the concept of joy has any application to him. Contrary to several critics, I don’t read this scene as a poignant affirmation of marriage, with Ennis (alone after Alma, Jr.’s departure) sadly mourning the marriage to Jack that never happened. The scene’s emphasis is on desolation rather than what-might-have-been. After all, there is no evidence that Ennis would have accepted a union of any sort with Jack, his every gesture refusing that kind of intimacy out of fear of society and himself.   The film’s last shots are of the bloody shirts, the postcard of the mountain, and the trailer window pointing to a frontier that no longer exists, as all possibility is foreclosed. The strong, silent American male has come to a cul de sac, that is the place to which the American ideal of civilization has led. Ennis’s stoicism, his playing by the rules in the hope of something better, has simply produced his erasure. Download the entire PDF article. Source: thewest.com.au

What's the best conversation you've ever had with a stranger...

Here's a heartwarming answer to a question posed on LiveJournal... be sure to click the link below to read more. "The train was pretty packed and I spent the two-hour-ride reading the book "Beyond Brokeback". The book is a collection of posts by the users of the Ultimate Brokeback Mountain Forum (www.davecullen.com/forum) about their reactions to the film and how they dealt with their feelings afterwards. "Anyway…as I was reading I started feeling uncomfortable like I was being observed. I lowered the book and from the corner of my eyes noticed the strange looks I got from the guy who was sitting across from me. He was reading the newspaper so I didn't really think about the whole thing and continued reading. He was in his mid-forties or so after all. "After a little while he put the newspaper aside and looked at me, directly. I closed the book and looked back, right about to ask him if he'd like to have a picture of me so it would be easier for him to look at me. ..." Read more. Source: greenwhitebobo.livejournal.com

The Joker Action Figure Looks So Real it’s Scary "The Toy-Giant [Hot Toys] is all set to release Deluxe line collectible action figures of characters with Joker as its first Movie Master-piece entrant.  The makers had planned to release it in “early 2009″ and I think it would be better to not stretch dates any further. These will sell as hot cakes, so you better make a pre-release order if such option exists." Read more. Source: walyou.com

The Joker in Korea "Portraits of famous figures such as Albert Einstein, James Dean, Kim Il-sung, Osama bin Laden and Heath Ledger line the walls of Shinhan Gallery, in Gwanghwamun, downtown Seoul. From afar, the art works look like the grainy, lined images of old black-and-white television screens. But upon a closer look, one realizes the pieces are made out of black TV cable. "Korean artist Insane Park created portraits of these widely recognizable figures for his on-going exhibition The Attack by Media. Park counts Damien Hirst, Andy Warhol and Marcel Duchamp as his artistic influences. His portraits are based on iconic images of prominent people and fictional characters, such as screen legend Marilyn Monroe, rap star Eminem and Superman's alter ego, Clark Kent. "In Why So Serious, he recreated the grotesque face of the Joker, as played by the late Australian actor Heath Ledger in the film Dark Knight. The title refers to the Joker's famous quote. " Read more. Source: koreatimes.co.kr

First Look: Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock

"Advocate.com's exclusive first look at Ang Lee’s new film Taking Woodstock includes this photo of Liev Schreiber, who plays Vilma, a drag queen who serves as a bodyguard during the Woodstock festival. The film is based on the memoir by Elliot Tiber, the gay man who made one call and a few weeks later managed to stage one of the most defining cultural events in American history. "James Schamus, the screenwriter of Taking Woodstock and CEO of Focus Features, which is releasing the film, says Lee, whose previous credits include Brokeback Mountain, describes Vilma as a sort of angel for Elliot, “someone who’s going to be watching over him and helping become who he needs to be.” "Schamus phoned from a sound-mixing session to tell Advocate.com a little bit about the new film and why the studio that brought us Brokeback Mountain and Milk is going to impress us once again. "Advocate: I was talking to another filmmaker who’s casting a gay film, and he said the problem now is not finding an actor to play gay but to find one who hasn’t played gay this year. Did you find that to be the case?

"James Schamus: [Laughs] That’s awesome. That’s fantastic. I always say the same thing; I’ve been saying this for years. Everybody’s charting the progress, and the setbacks, and letting every representation… And is it in them? Is it too political or not political enough? Did Proposition 8 [win] because… You know, you could drive yourself crazy. Or you can just get up in the morning and go, "Hey, another great story." The on-screen stuff we track, but I feel that really the progress is going to be when some big Hollywood gigantic action movie, with the hot babes and action hero, and the star shows up with his boyfriend on the red carpet. That to me, that’s going be the next moment. In the meantime, we’re still going to be making good movies and selling them, and being unapologetic about it. But we’re also being oddly breezy about this one. There will be some headwinds against it, like we didn’t make it problematic or central enough, and we’ll hear it and engage that discussion, but it's also important for the LGBT community to know that we’re out there at the front of the line, and have a sense of ownership of the movie and characters." Read more. Source: advocate.com.au

Brokebackberry -- A Fruity Table Wine?



Source: vat19.com

More Pink Dollars for Silver Screen

"It pays to be gay in the world of cinema these days as movies featuring queer themes continue to attract bigger budgets, bigger stars and bigger audiences both overseas and at home. "From the $2 million it took to make The Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert to the $14 million budget for Brokeback Mountain, the changing face of the industry is eloquently captured in the 10th annual Brisbane Queer Film Festival (BQFF). "Launching at the Powerhouse on April 3, this year's landmark festival comprises a cross-section of films that reflects the steady growth in gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender cinema. '"The most interesting element about this year's festival is that many of the themes of the films we've selected are dealing with issues outside of what the earlier, more `typical' queer films did," said festival director Sarah Neal. ... Stories about parenthood, for instance, weren't there 10 years ago - neither was much of the Middle Eastern content that features this year." "Palmer Marchese, a young, straight actor on the rise and star of Peter Ireland's critically acclaimed short film, Spokes, said accepting the role of the gay lovelorn lead was a common sense decision. ... "It's a good idea to be in a queer film or perform a gay part at the moment," Marchese said. "It was a good choice - it was a smart choice, because gay culture is pretty popular at the moment." "Referencing Heath Ledger, Russell Crowe and Tom Hanks, the former Toasted TV host said that while he didn't want to actively participate in the LGBT community, he didn't mind delving into the scene for his art. ... "It's not something that will see you typecast in the way it once did," he said. "I wasn't worried at all." Read more. Source: brisbanetimes.com.au

Brokeback Mountain Everywhere

The Daily Sheet is always impressed by the number of articles or news items that appear each week online -- stories, or announcements for events that cite Brokeback Mountain, or Annie Proulx, or anything attached to the film or book. Here's a quick list of some links you might find interesting -- some are local events that might be near you, so be sure to give the sites a visit. State of Play, a remake of the original BBC television series, will be coming to the big screen soon, with a cast including Russell Crowe, Rachel McAdams, Ben Affleck and Helen Mirren. It will be shot by Brokeback Mountain cinematographer, Rodgrido Prieto.  More Info. Reader's Café at the Concord Library will be discussing Brokeback Mountain on July 15th. "Do you love reading books and like talking about them?" Check the link for their full schedule of events.  More Info. Spiritual Discovery Through Movies hosted by Ken McGuire, CSP. At St. Mary's on the Lake, Lake George, NY. Includes discussion of movies like Brokeback Mountain, Milk, Whale Rider, Into the Wild, Inherit the Wind, Notebook and Stand and Deliver.  More Info. Cleveland bound? "Summer Sunday Stallion afternoons are legendary; the rest of the year you can expect an old-school, neighborhood queer bar vibe. From the holiday cards hanging on the wall to the Brokeback Mountain memorabilia serving as décor to the regulars clustering on the stools, this is your bar if you’re a regular Joe."  More Info.

Say howdy to the Brokeback-friendly crew at the Leather Stallion bar in Cleveland, OH.

Dance like a Gay Cowboy "Fulfill your not-so-secret Brokeback Mountain" fantasies by learning how to line dance from the flannel-shirt-clad experts at Rawhide, Cobra’s Sunday night country western beer-bust-and-barbecue located in the heart of North Hollywood."  More Info.

The Reviews Keep Streaming In

“You want me to read about the Columbine massacre? When I have two daughters in high school? Dipping into this book was not something I looked forward to, and yet, from the very first page, I could not put COLUMBINE Dave Cullen's searing narrative, down. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, it seems, were not the lone black-clad goth gunmen portrayed by the media, but bright kids who had plenty of friends. In riveting psychological portraits, Klebold emerges as a depressed — possibly suicidal — boy, easily controlled by the calculating Harris, the one who planned the day. How the killings unfolded, and why, reads like the grisliest of fiction. Would that it were not true.” -- Tina Jordan, Entertainment Weekly     Read more.                       Buy Columbine. Check out the Columbine trailer on YouTube. Keep abreast of what's happening at The DC Chronicles.

Schedule of Dave Cullen's appearances for Columbine

It looks like Dave's book tour is winding down, but here are your chances to see him on the West Coast. For more information, visit his facebook page, which offers details on each specific appearance, and enables you to RSVP if you can attend one of the events. • Saturday, April 25, 2009 at 3:30pm, LA Times Festival of Books, UCLA campus, Westwood, CA      Dave will discuss his new book on stage with LA Times Books Editor David Ulin. • Monday, April 27, 2009 at 7:00pm, University Bookstore, 4326 University Way, NE, Seattle, WA • Wednesday, April 29, 2009 at 7:30pm, Books Inc., 301 Castro St., Mountain View, CA Schedule subject to change; please check with venues to confirm.

Catch Dave at the LA Times Book Festival

If you're attending the Los Angeles Times Book Festival this weekend, you have two chances to catch Dave Cullen. Saturday, April 25, 3:30pm - 4:30pm PST. Dave will be interviewed on-stage by David Ulin. This session will be broadcast live by C-Span’s Book TV. Ulin is the book editor of the LA Times. On Sunday, April 26, 12pm - 12:30pm PST. Dave will be interviewed on the C-Span Bus by executive producer Peter Slen. This session will also be broadcast live on Book TV. It has been noted that Book TV's times are a little off, so be prepared for the interviews to start a little early or a little late. Visit the LA Times website for more information.

WikiWhat? Today's WikiWhat? is is related to the Advocate interview with James Schamus (see First Look: Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock, above): Take a peek into the life of Elliot Tiber, the subject of the new comedy/drama Taking Woodstock, directed by Ang Lee -- featuring a screenplay by James Schamus (see above) -- and soon to be released by Focus Features. In addition to his autobiography, Tiber also wrote, Knock on Woodstock: The Uproarious, Uncensored Story of the Woodstock Festival, the Gay Man Who Made It Happen, and How He Earned His Ticket to Freedom, which sounds a lot like the title of a Sacha Baron Cohen movie!

Photo of the Day

By atruant in Life Through The Lens 3

Chuck and John (atruant) at Comox Lake, BC, Canada

Quote of the Day

“He was my cream, and I was his coffee - And when you poured us together, it was something.”

~ Josephine Baker ~

Photocaption of the Day

By CellarDweller115 in Photo Captioning Fun 4

mama, what's "slash?"

Contributors: atruant, CellarDweller115

Calendar of Events

If you have ideas about initiating a gathering, go to Start Your Own Threads
and get the ball rolling to plan a get-together near you.

Man Dance Company
San Francisco - July 10-12, 2009

Let us know of any events you’d like listed here.

The Daily Sheet is a production of The Ultimate Brokeback Forum at www.davecullen.com/forum.

Editors emeritae: CactusGal, Marge_Innavera, tellyouwhat, Stilllearning, MissYouSoMuch

Researchers: BayCityJohn, BrokenOkie, Killersmom, Kittyhawk, Marge_Innavera, Stilllearning

Formatters: denim girl, gnash

Today’s edition formatted by gnash

We count on you to send us your news items, questions, and nominations for posts of the day.
If you have items you’d like to see published, send them to tds@davecullen.com.

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When a new issue of TDS is posted, you will be notified by e-mail.

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[Stilllearning]

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

Columbine Truths Are Simple, Powerful "It opens with a proclamation of love and concludes with an image of redemption, and what unfolds in the pages between them is extraordinary. Titled simply Columbine, this book by journalist Dave Cullen is being released at the 10th anniversary of the school-shooting tragedy. "Cullen arrived at Columbine shortly after Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris unleashed bullets and bombs at their Colorado high school on April 20, 1999. What followed the massacre was a firestorm of another kind: the anguish of a community left bewildered and battered by rumors, misstatements, assumptions, ineptitude and an agonizing struggle for the truth." Read more. Source: charlotteobserver.com

The reviewer 'got' what some others have not - that it is a story of love and courage and redemption, not just a hideous massacre.

The road to equality has added a few lanes

Marriage equality has made slower progress in the US than in many other countries; but there have been encouraging developments recently despite last year's Proposition 8 disappointment in California.  It’s Official In Connecticut The Connecticut Supreme Court’s recent ruling officially became law in Connecticut last Thursday, when the General Assembly updated marriage laws to bring them into conformity with the court ruling. The bill passed by respectable margins: 28-7 in the state Senate and 100-44 in the House of Representatives. Governor M. Jodi Rell indicated that she would sign the bill; although she approved only of civil unions for gay and lesbian citizens. State statutes now define marriage as the legal union of "two people" rather than of "a man and a woman", and existing civil unions will become legal marriages as of October 1, 2010, unless they've been annulled or dissolved. Religious organizations with objections to marriage equality are legally exempt from providing services, goods or facilities for same-sex wedding ceremonies. The update also removed language from a 1991 law stating that the state does not condone "homosexuality or bisexuality or any equivalent lifestyle," require the teaching of homosexuality or bisexuality "as an acceptable lifestyle," nor set quotas for hiring gay workers or authorize recognition of same-sex marriage. Ironically, the amended statute is an anti-discrimination law. Read the complete story, including reactions from supporters and opponents, in the Associated Press. Supporters turn out for hearings in Maine In the meantime, there was a heavy turnout from supporters at an April 22nd hearing on LD-1020, a bill which would legalize same-sex marriage in Maine. About 3,000 people attended the hearings before the Judiciary Committee at the Augusta Civic Center, with the Bangor Daily News  reporting that supporters outnumbered opponents by about 4 to 1.

Maine Sen. Dennis Damon, D-Trenton, LD-1020's sponsor

Ms. Bev Uhlenhake, speaking on behalf of the bill, related that she and her partner, Sue Mitchell Ulenhake, had held a commitment ceremony in 2006 on the same day as her grandparents' 60th anniversary. Although she had been nervous about her grandfather's reaction, he had been unexpectedly supportive. “He and my grandmother may not understand homosexuality," she told the Committee, "but they do understand love and commitment, and that your husband or wife is the most important partner in life. We want to show our son what a partnership like theirs is like. We want him to learn, by example, how to treat someone with love, respect and caring. We want him to have the same sort of comfort that comes from that binding commitment that is marriage.” On the opposition side Bishop Richard Malone, head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, stated that legalizing of same-sex marriage raised concerns about the institution of marriage itself although, he stressed, he believed that support for a legal ban on same-sex couples marrying was "not based on a belief that gay and lesbian Mainers are somehow undeserving of civil rights because of their sexual orientation."

Rev. Steve Sobel, pastor of the Franklin Baptist Church in Franklin, Maine stated that “it’s my good old Down East common sense and my God-given love for those that want it to pass that led me to be here today to oppose the bill.” He assured the Committee that he was not motivated by hate or homophobia, although he referred to sex between people of the same gender as a perversion. “Perversion is not a hateful word and those of us who truly love God don’t hate people who are different from us," he explained. "The concept of same-sex marriage is nothing less than an assault on God’s design for humanity. Nothing is sacred if the institution is on the chopping block.” Click here to listen to the live testimony.

Alma Junior Meets Iron Man

Empire Online reports that "the ever-increasing cast of Iron Man 2 already includes Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Jon Favreau (who, of course, also directs), Mickey Rourke, Sam Rockwell, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Garry Shandling and John Slattery, but it landed two more names today, in Kate Mara and Clark Gregg. "Mara, who you may remember from Brokeback Mountain (as Ledger's character's daughter) or Shooter, plays a character who's still under wraps. Looking at her, we're kinda wishing she was a little bit older and had been cast as Mary-Jane in Spider-Man, but we don't know who she's playing here."

About Annie Proulx

A book about Annie Proulx is scheduled for publication this November. Amazon’s advance listing reports that Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain and Postcards “features a biography of the author, a full-length analysis of the texts, a summary of their popular and critical reception, a discussion of the recent film adaptation of Brokeback Mountain and its reception and a great deal more. If you're studying either text, reading them for your book club, or if you simply want to know more, you'll find this guide informative, intelligent, and helpful.” Author Mark Asquith, is an English professor, specializing in the modern American novel, at Trinity School Croydon, UK. He has published articles on contemporary American fiction as well as a book titled Thomas Hardy, Metaphysics and Music. (Palgrave, 2005) and a number of articles on contemporary American fiction. See more details, and order the book at the forum’s Ultimate Brokeback Forum Store.

Sharing Beyond Brokeback

Saturday's Daily Sheet featured an account of a conversation that a Beyond Brokeback reader had with a fellow train passenger. Last week, the LiveJournal blogger, who's from Bremen, Germany, shared some background. ”You might want to know where I got the book,” she wrote. - it is not mine. A friend from the German Brokeback Forum (www.the-brokeback-mountain.de) asked me to translate it for her. She is in her sixties and doesn't speak English. At least not good enough to fully understand the book. It was quite a lot of work but I loved doing it. "I carried the book with me almost at all times and read it just about everywhere, on the train, on the bus, during lunch break, because the stories and personal experiences of the users were so compelling and touching, some of them even heartbreaking." See more details, and order the book, available in English, at the forum’s Ultimate Brokeback Forum Store.

Goodbye, Dorothy

Television viewers first noticed Beatrice Arthur in 1971 when she guest-starred on the hit sitcom All In the Family as Maude Findlay, Edith Bunker's acid-tongued cousin. She made a big enough impression to star in a spinoff, Maude, another sitcom that used the social issues of its time as material for humor.  In 1985 she played Dorothy Zbornak, a member of the senior-citizen trio on Golden Girls, winning an Emmy for the role in 1988. But Arthur also worked in some of the most enduringly famous stage productions of the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s: as Luce Brown in the off-Broadway premiere of Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera in 1954, Yente the matchmaker in the Broadway premiere of Fiddler on the Roof in 1964 and Vera Charles in the state production of Mame in 1966 as well as its film version in 1974.  Shortly after Golden Girls went off the air, she toured a one-woman show and returned to Broadway in Bea Arthur On Broadway: Just Between Friends, which was nominated for a Tony Award for "Best Theatrical Event." Arthur had battled cancer for several years and passed away last Saturday morning, at the age of 86. A number of videos have appeared among the tributes to Arthur this week. Among them are a clip from Golden Girls, a  scene from Maude in 1968 and a musical turn with Rock Hudson with an iconic 1970s show tune, "Everybody Today Is Turning On."

Columbine News

Moving On Up

Columbine has moved up to #5 on the New York Times bestseller list. It's jumped up two notches, from #7 last week.

Dave Cullen's Appearances For Columbine

San Francisco area Brokies might want to listen for Dave on the Ron Owens Show on KGO-AM 810 at 10:00 Wednesday morning, April 29. If you're in Mountain View, CA, drop in at Books, Inc. at 301 Castro Street for a discussion and book signing; Wednesday evening at 7:30 p.m. Schedule subject to change; please check with venues to confirm.

Canada Sends Condolences

Sarah Murdoch of the National Post in Toronto, Canada recently expressed condolences to Dave on Oprah Winfrey's cancellation: "Our sympathies go out to Dave Cullen, author of Columbine, a brilliant reconstruction of the April 20, 1999, massacre of 13 students at Columbine High School and its aftermath. He did a taped interview with Oprah Winfrey recently that was to have been aired last Monday on the 10th anniversary of the murders. Alas, Winfrey twittered her fans on Monday to announce she was cancelling it because it 'focused too much on killers.' "

The National Post Review of Columbine

The National Post also reviewed Columbine on Saturday, April 25, 2009. Reviewer Philip Marchand noted that the Columbine murders illustrated some of the pitfalls of the popular cliches about violence. "The court-appointed counsellors and psychiatrists who dealt with Harris after he and Klebold had been caught stealing from a van were totally fooled by him. 'Don’t look for the oddball creeping you out,' Cullen advises his readers concerning the type. 'Psychopaths don’t act like Hannibal Lector or Norman Bates. They come off like Hugh Grant, in his most adorable role.'" Marchand added that "They also have an almost total absence of empathy with other human beings." Read the entire review here. Buy Columbine. Check out the Columbine trailer on YouTube. Keep abreast of what's happening at The DC Chronicles.

When It Freezes Over

Bubba reported in Media Coverage: How Are We Seen? that "Famed conservative
Dr. Laura Schlessinger praised same-sex committed relationships on Larry King Live as,
'a beautiful thing and a healthy thing.' ”  See shewired.com

fritzkep responded with a photo of a sign at the city limits of a town in Michigan:

Brokies Get Together

Brokies don't always wait for scheduled reunions to touch base.  Janjo reported in Forum Meetings/Reunion/Visits that "Andy popped round to see us this afternoon. It was lovely day and we had afternoon tea in the garden."

Andy and I.



Andy and Mr Janjo.

It's All In the Timing

Many experienced gardeners are convinced that planting, maintaining and harvesting can be affected by the Zodiac and by the phases of the moon. huntinbuddy gives some tips on using the phases of the moon for the best gardening results: First Quarter – Increasing Moon (New Moon to First Quarter Moon): Except for the first day of a new moon, this phase is best for planting asparagus, broccoli, brussels sprouts, barley, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, cucumbers, corn, cress, endive, kohl rabi, lettuce, leeks, oats, onions, parsley, and spinach; also seeds of flowering plants. Second Quarter – Increasing Moon (First Quarter Moon to Full Moon): Plant beans, eggplant, muskmelon, peas, pepper, pumpkin, squash, tomatoes and watermelon.  Fruit and vegetables will do better during shipment if gathered just before the full moon. Third Quarter – Decreasing Moon (Full Moon to Last Quarter Moon): Best time to plant artichoke, beets, carrots, chicory, parsnips, potatoes, radish, rutabaga, turnip, and all bulbous flowering plants, such as tulips, daffodils and hyacinths. Also the best time to dig root crops in general. Fourth Quarter – Decreasing Moon (Last Quarter Moon to New Moon): A good time to do garden maintenance: turning the sod and pulling weeds . Go here and here in the Gardeners' Corner for more detailed tips on the timing of planting and harvesting.

Fun Question of the Week

Betty Furness

This week’s Question: How did the American football huddle originate? Let us know the answer on the response thread. Last week's question and answer: Two 'household names' appeared in advertising, including TV commercials, for Westinghouse in the late 1950s. Who were they? Betty Furness and John Cameron Swayze were both Westinghouse spokespeople. Furness became famous for her TV demonstrations of refrigerators, and Swayze, more famous for Timex ads, actually did spots for a Westinghouse atomic reactor in 1956, using the logo "Westinghouse: First With the Future." Furness' appliance commercials included a 1958 guest appearance by the cast of I Love Lucy during the run of the Desilu Playhouse. Thanks to Ennis Del Mark, garyd, and dejavu for your thoughts on this tough one!

Quote of the Day

“Only when the tide goes out do you find out who is not wearing a bathing suit.”

~ Warren Buffet ~

Photocaption of the Day

contributed by HR, at  Photo Captioning Fun 4.     HR's postscript: "For those outside the US: Quiet, rural, practical Iowa now allows gay marriage. Yee Haw."


The JP in Council Bluffs closes at 5...

These trails are gettin' too steep for me. My back hurts. My feet hurt. And I'm always out of breath.
	Maybe we should go someplace else. Someplace flat. Like Iowa.
Iowa? You been to Iowa, Jack? I know what they have for boys like you in Iowa.
	Hell no, I ain't been to Iowa. 'cause there's only one person I'd want to go to Iowa with.

Damn, Nebraska's gonna take forever.

Kwitcherbitchin
'N keep your foot down
'fore I change my mind.

Contributors: CellarDweller115, huntinbuddy, janjo, bubba, fritzkep, HR

Calendar of Events

If you have ideas about initiating a gathering, go to Start Your Own Threads
and get the ball rolling to plan a get-together near you.

Man Dance Company
San Francisco - July 10-12, 2009

Let us know of any events you’d like listed here.

The Daily Sheet is a production of The Ultimate Brokeback Forum at www.davecullen.com/forum.

Editors emeritae: CactusGal, Marge_Innavera, tellyouwhat, Stilllearning, MissYouSoMuch

Researchers: BayCityJohn, BrokenOkie, gnash, Killersmom, Kittyhawk, Marge_Innavera, Stilllearning

Formatters: denim girl, gnash

Today’s edition formatted by denim girl

We count on you to send us your news items, questions, and nominations for posts of the day.
If you have items you’d like to see published, send them to tds@davecullen.com.

To subscribe to The Daily Sheet, click the “Notify” button at the top or bottom of the page.
When a new issue of TDS is posted, you will be notified by e-mail.

The Daily Sheet Archives
Respond to The Daily Sheet