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I LOVE that this section has dogs and celebs .. but nobody has mentioned The Pope! LOL
I have to just say...that i am totally loving the macabre way they are trapsing the Pop around all dead on a board... just think its brilliant... i bloody well hope that when I pop me clogs that you lot will do the same for me too! Take me round to all the ex-boyfriends houses.. piss everyone off.. I have never seen a corpse so much as ole John Paul! Amazing..it would never happen in Bloombergs NY!
Well, Anna, to trundle your exquisite corpse to your ex-boyfriends' homes would take much more time than the nine days, or Novemdiales that the pope is allotted Eek

Actually, although I really do not agree with how the mainstream media is reviewing his life, I personally find the whole ritual extremely fascinating. From cracking him on the head with a silver hammer, calling out his first name three times, to the actual voting for the successor, it's quite a show!
Not to mention hauling the corpse through the streets, the reading of his "will," in which he leaves no property to anyone but reviews his own life in a surprisingly candid fashion, and the sewing of the ballots together with needle and thread...

There is a great site reproducing an article in
London magazine about the process in 1903:

How The Pope Is Elected (1903)

Little has changed since then. Indeed, since the 12th Century, though JPII tried to clean it up a bit. Quite fascinating!

I also read an article in the NY Times Magazine today concerning a public appearance in 1991 at the shrine of the mysterious "Black Madonna" in Czestochowa, Poland, that I thought was intriguing:

"Then he spoke. He listed all the countries represented at the event, giving special mention to Russia's "passing from slavery..." When, in his list of countries, which he delivered in Polish, he came to the United States, he asked his audience, "Do you know where that is?" And then half under his breath, but loud enough for his translator to hear, he muttered ruefully, "Perhaps too well."
Last edited by hatches
Though it is being discussed elsewhere on the Boards - condolences, MBR - I just wanted to note the passing of Andrea Dworkin here.

Though I agreed with very little that she said, I am so glad that she existed - to speak the unpopular, to live so far outside of any even unconventional ideals or standards of beauty that she quite literally created her own. Much of her writing was beautiful itself.

Though my poem "Take Back The Night" was named for a Woman's radio show in Ptown, circa 1986-90, I later learned that they got the phrase from her writing.

I saw her speak once, during an abortion rights rally across the street from the Democratic convention in NY in 1992. We were there with the Jackie 60 contingent, mostly go-go dancers, erstwhile hookers, lesbian pornography advocates, etc. And such was the strength of her oratory that she brought even that crowd (and this writer) to their feet, cheering.

Larger than life, times ten. RIP, VIP
Last edited by Chi Chi
You are right Chi, that phrase is very, very beautiful and inspirational. How many times have I been pissed about not being able to walk around late at night, without being ready to fight!

I can't agree with her stand on pornography, as I believe women can also engage in, create and enjoy it, but it didn't hurt for her to blast the porn establishment in the 60s and 70s.

Violence against women is no joke at all. Without the 'radicals' crashing through the stereotypes, sometimes a point can't be made.

http://deepstealth.com/vday/about.htm

Eve Ensler and V-Day continue the work.
Dworkin was an American orginal in the best sense of being a contrarian. Someone who could make any and all, at least silently in their own minds, question their own deeply seated values and viewpoints on the most basic elements of sexuality and life. She was dangerous to both the establishment and the counter-culture equally. Someone so impatient for change she had to be vehemently vociferous. The point to her life wasn't to have anyone at all agree with her. But to be inspired by her outspokenness, which was above all the main value she taught.
Gay Rights Pioneer Jack Nichols Dead At 67

5/03/05

Long before Stonewall, Jack Nichols, along with Frank Kameny, founded the Washington D.C. Mattachine Society in 1961. They took the name for their organization from Harry Hay, who had founded the first Mattachine Society in Los Angeles in 1950, and who later went on to found The Radical Faeries.

Nichols was responsible for some of the first Gay Rights demonstrations in this country, most notably the famed March On Washington in April 1965. He also helped to convince the American Psychiatric Society that it would be a good idea to declassify homosexuality as a mental illness.

A remarkable man, a remarkable life... R.I.P.

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Last edited by hatches
AWWWWWWWWWWwwwwwwwwwwwwww Luther Vandross died!
This is so sad.... Kind of Never too Much... he seemed like a doll... i never knew him nor ever met him... but just from TV interviews he seemed a cherub... also loved his voice and he's recorded some fantastic songs... How sad he died...and so young.... aww bless ya Luther u were So Amazing! Hope ya Dance wid ya father again.... bless!
I met Luther several times through his late sister Ann who I worked with for several years at a past day job. The last meeting was unfortunately at Ann's wake ... she died from a sudden respiratory problem. (Ann was an actress herself, she played the abused wife in the acclaimed indie film "Straight out of Brooklyn") Luther was one of three children and the last surviving sibling. Saddest of all I believe Luther's mother outlived all of her children and now is burying her last.

A truly great voice and one of the hallmark R&B vocalists of our time. He will be missed.

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