The City of West Hollywood, California has banned the sale of fur beginning in September of 2013!

Really, what’s a drag queen to do!

Did I miss something?

Is the US Constitution null and void?

The city fathers put animal rights over personal rights by voting 3-1 in favor of the ban.  One spineless coward abstained.

Abstentions just piss me off!

They are very proud of the move too!  ”We made history.  We’re the first place in the world, I believe, certainly the country, to take that step and ban fur,” said Ed Buck, and organizer of the local group Fur Free WeHo.

This could cost retailers over $2 million a year.  Over half of the 200 clothing shops in WeHo sell furs or fur trimmed items.

The ordinance specifically mentions furs made from a fox, mink, rabbit, bear, seal or chinchilla. Clothing made from wool sheared from sheep is not affected by the ban, nor is furniture or leather goods.

But, I’m guessing they’re next!

Vintage items are not impacted.  So, if you have some raggedy-assed old mink, you can sell it, buy it, or wear it.  But God forbid that a new stole hit the racks!

West Hollywood, known for its quirkiness, has in the past, banned the de-clawing of kittens.  This was of course, fought by the vets of the area, and prompted the State of California to pass a law prohibiting cities from enacting similar laws.  They also banned the sale of “Saturday night specials’, but then, if you’re not wearing a fur, who needs a gun to defend yourself?

In spite of the fact that the PETA folks and other animal rights activists have been protesting furs for years, Americans are wrapping themselves UP in them.  Last year’s sales were UP 3.1 percent and reached over $1.3 BILLION!

According to Michelle Rex, an aide to City Councilman John D’Amico, who spearheaded the ban, details on how the measure will be enforced have yet to be defined.  Right now it looks like warnings and fines.

Regardless of how one feels about wearing fur themselves, banning the right of others to purchase and wrap UP in a mink is beyond the pale!

You can bet your Blackglama this will be contested. And frankly, my own feelings on fur aside and if someone at Blackglama reads this and I wear a large, I hope the fur people win this one.  I’m tired of our freedoms being taken away one by one!

And for the love of LIZ, if you’re gonna’ fight for the rights of something, think of all those little Pollys and Esthers who gave their lives for our wardrobes in the 1970s!

…I have mentioned before that this time change crap gets on my nerves.

Spring forward, fall back, my butt.

Pick a time and stick with it!

However, THIS weekend is the change date, and Daylight Savings Time ends.

We have to Fall Back.

So, imagine my chagrin when I set my clocks back LAST weekend thinking we were still on the Last Sunday in October method.

I hit the gym Sunday AM at 8 o’clock according to my car clock, which I’d changed the night before.  I couldn’t figure why people were leaving at 8:05.

Ron, one of the completely ripped fat free gym rats who gives me tips on what to do said, “You’re late this morning.”

And then it hit me!

It was the next week.

It’s pretty bad when you have to name yourself  ”Ass of the Week!”

Quit playing with the dates!

So, this weekend, make sure you set your clocks back an hour at 2 AM Sunday morning.

Now, don’t go setting them back any earlier, that wouldn’t be fair, wait until exactly 2 AM Sunday morning.  I’ll be sleeping, I’ve already got it done!

“As dog ownership increases in China, many view the annual dog-eating festival as cruel and unusual.”

That’s the opening line from an article this past week on “The Week”, an online publication.

No kidding, cruel and unusual. 

How about GROSS!

And people get mad at me because I won’t eat in a Chinese restaurant where I can’t see the kitchen.

The leading nabobs of Jinhau City, China have decided to put down the ginsu knives and end the six  hundred year old tradition of cooking and eating dogs.  The tradition started the Ming dynasty…you know, the one with all the pretty vases…gross and grace all in one ruling dynasty.

Supposedly, a Ming leader was trying to invade Jinhua and killed all the dogs so that their barking wouldn’t alert the city fathers.  To celebrate the invasion, the Mings whipped UP some Mu Shu Mutt and served it around town.  Thus, a tradition was born.

You know, during the War of Northern Aggression, when Vicksburg was under siege, the Vicksburgians ate rats to stay alive, and I for darn sure don’t remember any ads hyping UP the Vicksburg Rat Festival, do you?

But, alas, the tradition stuck in China.  As many as 10,ooo dogs would be slaughtered each year at the festival and served UP in many ways. 

Apparently, as the world becomes more and more PC, and the Chinese realize they aren’t they only people on earth, some of the locals have said “Just say no to Fido” and called for a halt to the festival.

Doggie dining is – thank goodness – not as big in China as it used to be, but the Chinese Astronauts did eat dog while in space!  But dog ownership has increased in China, where it was once banned as a “borgeois habit” during the cultural revolution.  And I’m guessin’ that when little Yang Min and Mong Toy came home from school and Spot was missing from the dog house and that chicken leg looked awfully familiar, the shit hit the fan!

Not every one is happy that the festival is ending.  Some of the locals felt that since it was passed from generation to generation, it should remain as part of the culture.  Quaint it ain’t, if you ask me, and while we’re on that passing things along topic;  senility, imbicility, lunacy, and other ‘ilities’ are passed along too.

Frankly, this festival going away will make people happier than the end of panty-hose!

So, the dogs are resting easy in Jinhua City, but the cat on the corner is watching it’s back!

For the longest time, I quit dreaming.  Well, I didn’t quit, because every one of us dreams;  I only quit remembering them. 

But, recently, an onslaught of dream memories has appeared.

It is a tad disturbing.

A mishmash of people;  those who do and do not know one another find themselves connected in my mind for seemingly hours each night.

I’ve never had dinner with the President, but the other night, it seemed so real.

And why I found myself in Paris, in the same taxi cab with Peter O’Toole and Jerry Buie is beyond me.  I work with Jerry.  I’ve never met Peter.  It’s just ODD!

While in therapy a few years back, my Doctor wanted me to write down my dreams.  That was a little difficult since I was asleep, but each morning, or in the middle of the night when I awoke, I’d scribble notes on a  pad and take them with tme to each session.

I couldn’t read most of them, and they usually made no sense at all. 

Dreams are funny.  I rarely have scary ones, (I’m sure that’ll change tonight!), and the ones I do have are very confusing. 

It’s just strange:  disconnected people, places I’ve never been, things I’ve never seen.

Sometimes I’ll dream a passage from a book I’ve been reading, or sometimes I’ll dream of things from the past.  Sometimes I dream about my dad.

There is always at least one famous person in each dream I remember.

There is always blue, usually Royal Blue.

There are always cars.

There are always people with dark hair.

Some are happy, some are sad, and a rare one might be frightening.

Sometimes I don’t remember the dream until later in the day.  They seem less real then.  Dreams have a realness quality when I wake UP from one, remembering it vividly.  As the day wears on, and the dreams come back, they are less vivid, less bright, less real.

But I remember so many now.

And I wonder, if I remember this many now, how many more do I have that never come to mind?