Morning Edition - 1/24/06

Celebrate Good Times, Come On!
Friday’s festivities at La Maganette were great! The ladies being honored, Annette and Micheline, were beautiful as ever and rearing to prove that adding another year under their belt wasn’t going to prevent them from shaking their groove thing. Carmen C. arranged the party and provided the delicious cake. Thank you Carmen. We danced until the sweat poured down our cracks – was that TMI? Afterward, Carmen C., Krissy and I ventured into the Bronx for a late night breakfast. Krissy, I don’t know why I’m saying this, but I’m sorry if I’ve been hard on you lately. Enough said. Carmen C. – you’re a CLASS act! Again, have a wonderful year Freakin’ and Mich.

The City That Never Sleeps; We Just Die
Eugene Reilly was a mail handler who worked the 4:30 p.m. to 12:30 p.m. shift. Thursday night he boarded the Q train (in NYC) on his way home and died of a heart attack. Problem is, he didn’t fall over. So for the next six hours or so, Reilly rode the train until someone tapped his shoulder at 7:15 a.m. and found he was dead. Transit spokesperson Deirdre Parker says, “The policy is that if someone is sitting up, employees are not allowed to touch them.”

Walking on the Runway
Continental Airlines’ passengers were in for a surprise when Troy Rigby, 28, jumped out of his seat and demanded to be let off the plane as it approached the runway to take off from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to Newark, New Jersey. After biting a passenger and threatening others on board, the pilot depressurized the plane and Rigby threw open the cabin door jumping down to the runway. There, Rigby resisted arrested before officers used a stun gun to subdue him. He now faces charges of criminal mischief, battery and resisting arrest with violence. Rigby was also held for an outstanding warrant for marijuana possession. The 116 passengers and five crew members were unharmed and the flight was rescheduled for later in the day.

Straight, Bi, Gay? What’s the story?
Brokeback Mountain still has folks talking. Either you’ve seen it and have an opinion or you haven’t seen it and been flooded with everyone else’s take on the film. The controversy now is how the actors who play Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhall) and Ennis del Mar (Heath Ledger) have been quoted as saying their characters are straight and, if not for their falling in love with each other and forming this bond, would lead otherwise straight lives. Strangely, even Ang Lee (the movie’s director) disagrees. Ultimately, the question comes down to, what defines your sexuality or sexual orientation. Is it the act of who you have sex with or what sex you feel most attracted to? Both Twist and Del Mar have wives and children in the movie, but are repeatedly drawn to each other.

On Blast
As an adult, have you ever felt sexual attraction or a feeling that you were falling in love with someone of the same sex? Do you feel that those feelings define your sexuality? Is there such a thing as STRAIGHT folks engaging in gay sexual intimacy – if only with ONE person - and still being straight?

Keep passin’ the open windows…