Up the Lazy River

Today's title refers to the Amazon, of course, as in Amazon dot com. Specifically, it refers to the flapdoodle that arose this past weekend over the de-listing of LGBTQQ titles from their rankings.

Apparently this is important. I don't know why exactly, but it is. I know this because my friend Rob Byrnes (aka FARB) had totally lost his shit was somewhat discomfited over it. And any enemy discomfit of Rob Byrnes is an enemy discomfit of mine. He was particularly incensed discomfited by it since he just had a new book (fabulous... you should read it... called "Straight Lies") published and, let's face it, authors these days count on e-tailers like Amazon to really move the merch.

So after I read Rob's rant piece (love the [lack of] alliteration) I delisted my shopping cart and wish lists from Amazon and sent a sternly worded email to some faceless drone in Mumbai who poses as their Customer Service Help Desk.

A scant 24 hours later I got a reply.

Then I posted this on Joe.My.God's blog:

"You wanna know what I think? I think that, for economic reasons only, the cataloging was outsourced to a country where ... well, let's just say that there's a totally different cultural bias regarding subjects such as "gay" and "lesbian" and "bisexual" and "transgendered" and "queer" there. A place where, in fact, the entire population remains largely skittish on the subject of sex in general.

And nobody in corporate bothered to double-check the work.

That's what I think. (the Amazon form reply was signed by Gajalakshmi S.)"

I stand by that theory. I think it was nothing more than the finance department trumping the editorial staff.

It's worse than a global conspiracy.

It's capitalism run amok. As usual.

Straight Lies

I don't know too many famous gay authors (I do know a couple of ostensibly straight ones), but I do know Rob Byrnes.

Well, he has a new book which was published this week. Here it is:



Tonight, April 2, is the launch party for his latest opus. It's being held at the Ritz Bar and Lounge, 369 West 46th Street, from 6:00 PM and 9:00 PM!

I intend to be there. If you're in the NYC metro area, you should be there, too.

Hell, you'll get to meet lots o' writers & bloggers and gawd only knows what else.

See ya there!

Oh No I di'nt.

No, I didn't finish HP and the DH last night. But I did read the entire chapter entitled "The Battle for Hogwarts." It's a ripping good yarn. Somebody else died. I'll read another chapter tonight.

I got an e-mail today from my newly favorite New Jersey Assemblywoman with an attached list of grievances against Academy Bus Lines. She asked me if I had anything I'd like to add. She must be kidding. She also advised me of the next "town hall" meeting that she's scheduled in order to have a public bitch-fest against the Poor Little Besieged Bus Company (cue the violins). I plan to attend, of course. Especially after she pointed out that over the last six years bus fares have risen 50%. I knew it was a lot, but not that much. Correspondingly, service has gotten at least twice as shitty in the same period of time.

And it seems that people on the other side of the state (towards the shore, along the Garden State Parkway route) have the same problems with Academy that those of us over on the NJ Turnpike route have.

At this point I'm urging a public boycott of Academy Bus lines.

Hump-Day. I could use a good hump right about now. Or at least a good long ... nap. At my age sleep is just as good as sex (to the best of my recollection).

I ran into an old drinking buddy of mine over at Joe.My.God yesterday. We reconnected, swapped some e-mails, and we're gonna do lunch some day next week. It'll be good to see World Famous Author Rob again.

TTFN & AMF