Charles Alexander
Parting Glances: Are you being, er, served?
Two expressions hop to mind while watching the media circus that strikes up the band around Michael Jackson's moon walk: "it's in the stars" and "it's in the lap of the gods." For PG readers with an astrological bent (or a penchant for heavenly lap [...]
Parting Glances: Phantoms of my opera
I've had oddball coincidences shaking up my go-for-the-gusto, once-around-only, skeptic's life — so much so I'm wondering if there isn't a Cosmic Joker trying to attract my attention. What She, He, or It intends to do with said commodity I haven't a [...]
Parting Glances
Diary for DST The pope is gone. (My fourth.) SATURDAY: I join Max and Rex – The Canines – at the Detroit Film Theater for Animation 2005. (I saw the 90-minutes of eight choice films on Friday, finding them so entertaining that a second helping of [...]
Parting Glances: (No, not THE Supremes)
Last December's tsunami — that took the lives of 170,000 people in Southern Asia, and prompted a caring world to raise millions of dollars for aid and assistance — was not without its strange I-told-you-so fishmongers. Seems there are those who [...]
Parting Glances: And no moon walking
I'm willing to bet that a month ago few of us – myself included – had ever heard of Edward Moss, who now finds himself in the curious limelight of both fame and misfortune. At 27, he's an actor standing in for the world's most famous – or, some [...]
Parting Glances: 1 ACROSS 300 DOWN
"Two things puzzle me: your drawings and your column, though I feel a strange compulsion to peek at both. Am I going off the deep end, or are you? A fan, of sorts." Dear Sorts: Thanks for your 3:14 a.m. true confession e-mail. I know how you feel. I [...]
Parting Glances: Other Voices, Other Rooms
I've again been invited to Washington on July 21 for the President's Dinner (Cocktail Reception, 6:00 PM; Dinner, 7:00; Dessert, 8:30) at the bustling Convention Center. Politics makes strange bedfellows. I'll once more decline because the Center [...]
Parting Glances: Memories of a Near-Forgotten Past. Pt. 1
Detroit's ancient, seven-story Cass Technical High School was replaced with a new $127 million structure five years ago; and an era of excellence in education and art — 21st Century post modern — began. The original building dated to 1918, and was [...]
Parting Glances: Once Upon a Sleeping Beauty
"I'm burning my candle at both ends. It will not last the night. But, oh, my foes, and, ah, my friends. It gives a lovely light!" These words are by poet Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950), the subject of the fascinating best-selling biography of [...]
Parting Glances: LGBT-Q Lining Memory Lane
I was in the Sunday habit, a few years back, of taking a suburban bus to Birmingham. Riding with me were regulars, most of whom were off to church, or gave that halo'd impression by dress or demeanor. Motivated by whimsy by a half-hour drive of [...]
Parting Glances: How's It Hangin' Big Guy?
Like people, words can be outed. Take the noun "testimony" for example. It's closet meaning goes back to biblical times, and the quaint family values custom of holding and swearing an oath on the balls (testicles) of one's father. "So help me, [...]
Parting Glances: A Very Modest Demand for Governing Recognition
FORM REQUEST: We, the undersigned, do hereby petition the Michigan State House of Representatives and Senate to confer Honorary Second Class Citizenship on [insert name], who tirelessly works to deny the civil rights of LGBT persons regardless of [...]