A look at two very different subjects … after-the-jump.
But first: Top Comments appears nightly, as a round-up of the best comments on Daily Kos. Surely ... you come across comments daily that are perceptive, apropos and .. well, perhaps even humorous. But they are more meaningful if they're well-known ... which is where you come in (especially in diaries/stories receiving little attention).------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Send your nominations to TopComments at gmail dot com by 9:30 PM Eastern Time nightly, or by our KosMail message board. Please indicate (a) why you liked the comment, and (b) your Dkos user name (to properly credit you) as well as a link to the comment itself.
Regular readers know of my fondness for cats … yet one type of cat often overlooked are black cats. Superstitions have long made them less adoptable at shelters, and while ritual sacrifice stories are largely considered urban legend (actual Wiccans abhor the idea; with any such cat killings more a random act of cruelty among boys) … black cats deserve to be more than Halloween decorations.
Fast forward to now … in the wake of the film Flow (produced and directed by the Latvian filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis) winning the Best Animated Feature at the recent Academy Awards, there may be a side benefit. The film features Noah, a courageous black cat who leads a diverse group of animals through an apocalyptic cat-astrophe in search of refuge from flooding.
Though this may be anecdotal: some accounts suggest that in Brazil, animal shelters that advertise that they have Flow Cats (black with yellow eyes) are seeing an increased level of adoption interest. Whether this is widespread (or even sustainable) … it couldn’t happen to a more deserving sub-species.
This past Monday, the title of an OpEd in the NY Times … well, caught-my-eye, early in the morning.
Why Dads Take Their Gay Sons to Hooters (that is a gift article link) was written by Peter Rothpletz, a gay man who saw a story in Bloomberg News that the chain restaurant Hooters was contemplating bankruptcy.
He recounted a story about his grandfather driving him (as a fifteen year-old) to a Hooters in Florida.
Our waitress was a tall, brassy blonde — a caricature of the caricature that is a Hooters waitress. She was in her late 20s with a deep yet indistinct Southern accent, and I could tell she clocked me almost immediately. Who knows if it was how I held myself or how my voice quivered or how my eyes slid away from hers. But later in the meal, when my grandfather went to the restroom, she slipped into the booth across from me and leaned in close. “You’re perfect just the way you are, kid,” she said, or something near enough to it, her voice low, kind and certain.
Posting this on social media, he received numerous DM’s from others with similar experiences, describing it as “conversion therapy … with a side of ranch.”
(Mr. Daher’s) father asked for a picture with two waitresses kissing his son’s cheek. He recalled, “They could both tell I was fairly hesitant about it, and they asked ... ‘How about we do bunny ears, instead?’”
“As they were walking away, they turned around and winked at me, almost to be like, ‘We had your back, we understood,’” Mr. Daher told me.
Some families apparently start … even earlier.
Another person who messaged me was taken by his family to a Hooters in Atlantic City, aged only about 9. His family was probably already realizing he was gay, he told me. “Our waitress was very pretty, and they kept wanting her to flirt with me, or have me flirt with her,” he said. “‘Wouldn’t you want to date a girl that’s that pretty one day?’”
As the family was leaving, he told me, the waitress stopped him on the way to the bathroom. She asked him if he was OK. When he said yes, she smiled. “I’m 30 now, and I walk by that Hooters any time I’m in Atlantic City, and I think about it,” he said.
It’s not a long read, yet illuminating. He added that one server said that the boys they dragged-in might not be gay … perhaps just not masculine enough for Dad.
Citing the OpEd in the website Medium the next morning (Tuesday), author Richard Johnson thought the fathers had the idea that one look at a Hooters server would … “kill the gay and turn them into … Pete Hegseth”. (Little did he know that later-in-the-day, good ‘ol Pete would be in yet another imbroglio).
Let’s clear-the-air with this swinging piano trio work.
Now, on to Top Comments (and maybe some Top Photos):
From Franks Human:
From today’s IAN (Itzl Alert Network) by art ah zen about their 43rd wedding anniversary— I nominate this comment by Tippy and Dad because it's like a college course in one comment while analyzing Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata."
Fromexlrrp (from today’s APR):
And from Ed Tracey, your faithful correspondent this evening ........
In the diary by annieli on the remarks at a Women’s History Month event made by someone hoping to become known as the fertilization president— Sue Blue is among others who see the historical antecedents of such talk.
And lastly: yesterday's Top Mojo - mega-mojo to the intrepid mik ...... who rescued this feature from oblivion:
14) IT’s A TRAP!! … by jfromga +9816) More leaky by Denise Oliver Velez +9720) Signalgate, cont. by exlrrp +8620) Keep up the great work! … by iWalkthetalk +8624) Awesome 👏 by avoicefromthemiddle +84