Remains of the Day (12/27)

NYP: Gee, I can hardly wait to fly into Phoenix for my (Maryland) brother's upcoming birthday gala with the family. (My former home won't be happy until it's gone full-on Florida.) 

Out: 20 LGBT shows that ended or got canceled in 2024

Matthew's Island: Will you settle for five men in jockstraps?

NYT Style Magazine: Stop the presses -- there are gay bookstores opening around the country!

Saturday 'Stache: Who wants to take a ride on Cheyenne Jackson?

Interview: “Tall blond with a big dick”: 18 men ask Edmund White some sexy questions

The Advocate: New York City man bleeds out in his husband's arms after fatal stabbing

The Gay Curmudgeon: Worst new year ever

BBC: The U.S. gay clubs dance style from 1970s headlining an Indian show

Greg in Hollywood: Looking forward to this mother-son film from Billy Eichner

THR: Hallmark star John Reardon is recovering from tonsil cancer

NBC News: Florida pizza delivery woman stabbed a pregnant customer 14 times over bad tip, authorities say

People: Alfa Anderson, singer with Chic, dies at 78

Buzzfeed: Gay man reflects on having child with straight friend

Speedo Sunday: Happy birthday to the man whose skimpy swimsuit on "WKRP in Cincinnati" hastened my homosexuality! 

Hot Cat of the Day: One of President Biden's favorite holiday tails

Gr8er Days: RIP to actor Geoffrey Deuel, 81

BriGuy: Dusting off some holiday favorites

AP: Depressing but not entirely surprising news from federal officials today: The U.S. saw an 18.1% increase in homelessness this year, a dramatic rise driven mostly by a lack of affordable housing as well as devastating natural disasters and a surge of migrants in several parts of the country.

Sour note: My friend Mark reminded me today that Tiny Tim once recorded a song called "Santa Claus Has Got the AIDS This Year." (When it was finally released around 1986, it was paired with "She Left Me With the Herpes.") During a live show in 1994, Tim claimed he had written it in 1980 or '81 -- "not to make fun of anybody, not for humor" and before anyone knew about the severity of the situation -- when there was a diet supplement on the market called AYDS, which he found funny. But anyone familiar with the history of the epidemic can tell you the disease at that time was known as "gay cancer" or GRID -- gay-related immune deficiency -- and the first usage of the term "acquired immune deficiency syndrome" wasn't until late 1982 -- so something about this whitewashing doesn't add up. (If he sincerely meant no harm, why would he then release it in the mid-80s and still be performing at the height of the death toll, the year before the cocktail was made widely available?) 

P.S. I'm certainly not a prude -- this is just the kind of thing Howard Stern used to play for laughs. But here's at least hoping this Songtell entry was written by AI, because it seems to take Tim at his (false) word and I don't think the "meaning" jibes with the reality at all -- the insertion of the word "the" before AIDS being the most obvious tell.