Guest: The Fairy Gardener

 Chicago, Illinois, July, 2013
Jim Edminster

Here it is the height of summer and where are the bees and butterflies?  My friend Steve reports from Minnesota that there are no bees there either.  I did see a few fireflies last night. (Do you call them lightning bugs?)  and the goddess knows that if insects are going extinct why couldn’t the ants invading my kitchen go first?

Let’s talk mini-climates:  in my medium sized yard I’ve had to adjust from full shade to nearly full sun (because as you know if you’ve followed my rantings in this column – a neighbor, no longer a friend, cut down two enormous trees that shaded my yard.)  The knowledge that mature yards generally get shadier is catching up even with me – beebling about the garden I noticed that the peonies I brought from my mother’s yard in Kansas didn’t bloom.  Neither did the German iris and the Siberian iris in my parkway.  Why?  Because they had become enshrouded in new shade.  I had to scout my yard, find a patch with more sun and plan a plant move. It has to be soon – sun plants may hang on in the shade for awhile but they’ll eventually succumb.  Pack your bags, ladies – we’re moving to new digs!

I live in one of the densest areas of Chicago but something  has incidentally evolved vis-à-vis a view that I really like:  sitting by my pond/waterfall if I look straight down my yard I see nothing but shades of green.  I’m in the country with no trace of people or their buildings.

All this greenery even tweaked with white, yellow and purple foliage gets, umm, a trifle monotonous.  Five or six blue horses scattered about help and so do the large blue pots I’ve put around.  When I worked at Gethsemane Gardens in Chicago I learned (Plant Pot Perfection I) from Carol Rice who trained all the folk in her section how to wow the customers.  Example:  large red/purple ti plant at rear, garten-meister fuschias next (green & white with pale orange blooms), and chartreuse creeping jenny over the edge of the blue pot.  Or – red-leafed canna in back, two miniature yellow tropical evergreens next, three tall verbena bonariensis between them and purple and green striped zebrinas (wandering Jews) tumbling over the edge.

Here’s this column’s recipe which has already been tried out on my garden club with no complaints:

Placing the 'M' in LGBTTQQAAM

LGBTTQQAAM (What’s the ‘M’ Stand for?)

Minneapolis, MN, June 2013

  In the ever evolving and lengthening chain of LGBTTQQAA*  queer social DNA strands, it is perhaps time to add a new and relatively surprising letter. 

  Anyone who has frequented gay bars on a regular basis over the last 6-months has noticed a surprising new trend – straight, non-homosexual, single, and often, HOT, HOT, HOT ex-military men and women.

  It seems the hottest and newest addition to the queer community is ‘M’ for military.

  Less than two years ago, was still under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT), a policy that theoretically kept the US military out of the private lives of gay and lesbian service members, AS LONG AS those service members kept their private lives out of the US military.  On 20 Sept, 2011, President Obama ended DADT.

  BUT who would have dared think that the end of DADT would open gay and lesbian bars on the home front to an invasion by straight or heterosexual service members? 

  Speaking to some in the ‘M’ community at bars as diverse as Charlies and Cell Block in Chicago and Town House and 19 in Minnesota, one comes to understand the natural attraction of the gay bar for returning soldiers.

  Primarily, it seems that many heterosexual returning soldiers seek out gay bars for the same reasons gays do… well, not to cruise and score on members of the same-sex, but rather for the sanctuary and adult atmosphere the gay bars provide. 

  Many soldiers left home no more than kids, but after one or even a few postings overseas, they have returned us as adults, and many of them as single adults.  The aforementioned list of bars has one commonality – these gay bars tend to be gathering places for a community of single adults who just want a cold beer, some interesting conversation, perhaps a sports game on tv… and a place to be.

  Oh many times, I am sure, the ‘M’ crowd is to be found at the local hetero-cruising grounds… but sometimes, it seems, they too want to get away from the cruising, drinking games and mass partying, searching out more of a local ‘social club’ atmosphere.

  Many in the ‘M’ community are returning from overseas as adults… much older than the college frat boys and girls who populate the singles bar scene in most large cities.  Sometimes, it seems, a common age, outlook and singleness, are more important for making friends and feeling free to just hang out with people, than is a common gender identity.

  And if you haven’t notice, most gay bars are still much more diverse than are many heterosexual hangouts.

LGBTQ Martyrs

Update 06 June 2013 (former addendum to A Tale of Two States)

  I am not sure of the date of this current Facebook meme (04 June, 2013), but it represents an additional illustration of the great lack of understanding of the basic issue:

The short answer is .... YES!  (someone else please sit down with Monique and explain to the Illinois legislator who these women and men and boys and girls are -- she's not going to take the time on her own -- their stories contradict her prejudice -- is my frustration starting to show?)  

Hint:  Each of the persons below is now dead for being or being perceived as homosexual.