Charles Alexander
Lucy Van Pelt Goes Disco
Parting Glances I'm spending several hours this week with 40 kids, the youngest three, the oldest 14. Each has a story about being or becoming aware that they are "different," had crushes on other boys, puppy loved other girls. Incipient same-sex [...]
West Horror Baptist Revenge
Parting Glances I'm not a fan of zombie or vampire movies, but I had occasion – I think it was Halloween, or, Feast of the Circumcision – one of the two of those ghoulish dates – to sneak preview a soon-to-be-released flick, "The West Horror [...]
Mine's Pi Square Pink!
Parting Glances In a triangle whose sides are 23,145,789 yards, 5,642,732 yards and 54,965 yards, how many cubicle 1/8ths of an inch exist? (Good cocktail question for a lull in your next invitational orgy.) An adult named Jedediah came up with [...]
Parting Glances: Time's up #144,000!
It was toward the end of 10,000 years when The Great Almighty had what seemed to angels and saints alike a change of heart. Corporate head of PR spin St. Peter said during Fox Martyr Newscast that it was "merely a change in direction, to be [...]
Parting Glances: How's Your Pomp, Mary?
"As the President of the United States holds the highest official rank in political life, so he is also by virtue of that office, awarded precedence in social life. He may be addressed as Mr. President or Your Excellency." Your Ex-cel-len-cy! Says [...]
Parting Glances: And A Big Bow Wow!
A federally funded study by People & Friends of Cats and Dogs (P-FCD) says that "persons of rainbow personality make the best dog owners, but have little influence on cats – although this should not be misconstrued as homophobia on the part of [...]
Past As Prologue
This year, 2013, marks the 59th year I have been an active participant in Detroit's lesbian/gay community – now the proverbial L/GBTQA gourmet alphabet soup. Like my senior citizen friends – Jim Toy, John Kavanaugh, Dr. Henry Messer and partner of [...]
And 2012, In Conclusion ...
Parting Glances This is the last PG column of 2012. Last because the year as years so quickly have a habit of doing has come to a conclusion. (The older one gets, the more rapidly they seemingly like to conclude.) Fortunately the world, as [...]
We're not in OZ, Toto!
Parting Glances If stars are auspicious – and on this glorious, Night of Nights one star shown brightest of all – there are paths that magically switch in time, space, and crazy activation. And so it happened once upon a whimsical time when five [...]
JWs Here, There, Everywhere?
Parting Glances The Great Jehovah, having nothing better to do than his eternal fuss-budging and macro-managing this beleaguered world, curiously has been getting on my case. It's not the Big Guy, who in a divine snit once wiped out the world [...]
Falling Leaves To Count
Parting Glances I ate a hearty Thanksgiving dinner with friends – a gay senior, a working lesbian mom, a transgender newbie, a straight advocate for women's rights, an outspoken teacher for bullied students. We traveled shortly after turkey time [...]
Ouch! Handel With Care
Parting Glances A musical staple of many a yuletide season is George Frederick Handel's "The Messiah," an oratorio performed with varying success by both amateur and professional musicians. Handel (1685-1759) was in his day the foremost composer [...]