An OCD for Effort?
Re “One Man’s Drive Is Another Man’s Disorder” by Deanna Isaacs, November 20
It’s interesting to think about the fact that obsessive-compulsive behaviors are deemed A-OK and even heralded by society as long as one is considered “productive.” What about those that run compulsively, but do not finish a marathon, or write compulsively, but never complete a book, or study water and sound waves, yet never manage to solve the mystery of Navier-Stokes equations, or compose hundreds of jokes that no one laughs at? I guess they are ill, and those that have “measurable outcomes” are not?
Koji
Pro-Business in Hyde Park
Re “The Chickens Outfox the Foxes: How Hyde Parkers leveraged labor’s clout to drive out a university-backed hotel development” by Ben Joravsky, November 20
It wasn’t “Hyde Parkers.” Most of us didn’t have the right to vote on this proposal. It was 254 voters in the 39th precinct of the 5th ward, many of whom live in a single high-rise next door to the vacated hospital and think they are entitled to “air rights” and peace and quiet (no more ambulance sirens, either). The rest of us would like a place to put up our friends when they visit. (We don’t all have mansions). And we would like the added business from university conference-goers and all those journalists covering the prez staying in Hyde Park. I don’t fault the U. for trying to build a hotel—just for not being smart enough to outfox this petition. Why don’t you interview some other famous south-siders about the racist history of the limestone and bricks that some people don’t want replaced with a live commercial institution that provides jobs and business.
Rosel
On Protecting Marriage and Protective Sex
Re Savage Love by Dan Savage, November 20
As a straight, single, thinking American, Prop 8 makes me feel like an angry parent yelling at the kids, “If you can’t figure out a way to share, no one gets marriage!”
Civil unions for all. If marriage is holy and sacred as defined by your church, it has no place in government ... unless you disagree with the separation of church and state (i.e., part of the underlying philosophy behind our country’s founding), which makes you un-American.
therna4
As a Professional Dominatrix, I would like to say that My Partners and I think using the slave’s own dildo is not unreasonable. Even if the Domme didn’t want to use his toy, She should be using condoms on all of Her toys with slaves, as well as washing them in front of them with an antibacterial solution. Most of the time I make the slave wash them himself in front of me.
At least let the worthless little bitch know that there are other options for Domination, and while whining and complaining is not an option for My slaves, a concern for the health and safety for all involved is appreciated and cultivated.
Miss Abbi
Windy City Revisited
Re “Windy City Blown Away” by Michael Miner, August 6, 1999
Jeff McCourt didn’t only “talk about for years” the idea of selling Windy City Times. In 1993 or 1994, he signed a contract with Maryland-based W.B. Grimes & Co., a media mergers & acquisitions firm founded in 1959, to represent the Windy City Times for sale. As the midwest senior M&A associate for W.B. Grimes & Co. and the first media M&A broker in U.S. history to take GLBT media seriously, I represented the Windy City Times for sale, along with the New York Native (and its sister publications Stonewall News and Christopher Street), the Washington Blade, and others. Jeff was given, by me, a written offer from a potential buyer for at least $750,000 in cash plus several hundred thousand more over several years (I don’t remember all details at this point), and he turned it down—confident that that potential buyer would offer more (he didn’t) or that another buyer offering more would come along (that didn’t happen either). My contact with Jeff declined dramatically after that, and the next major event I knew about, several years later, was the staff revolt. May Jeff rest in peace.
Dr. Dane S. Claussen
When Pigs Cry
Re “The Whole Hog Project” by Mike Sula, November 13
Poem by Henry S. Salt (1851-1939)
THE CRY OF THE MIGHT-HAVE-BEEN
We are the Pigs Unborn, the Pigs Forsaken;
O’erlooked by heedless folk who eat no bacon.
In blank pre-natal Nothingness we pine,
Robbed of that proud prerogative of swine,
The born pigs birthright—to be penned in muck,
In garbage grub, be fatted, and be stuck.
Mere ghosts of porkers, pork we’ll never be:
This, Vegetarian, this we owe to thee!
O deaf to crys of Pigs that Might Have Been,
Art thou not cruel? ask the learned Dean.
Leccese