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A chance encounter on a New Hampshire public-radio station helped pave the way for a successful alliance between addiction and mental health advocates, resulting in a new health-insurance parity law.
In the face of major political opposition, advocates for addiction treatment in New Hampshire recently succeeded in passing a bill that calls for limited parity for treatment of alcohol and other drug addictions. New Hampshire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen — herself a supporter of mental-health parity when she served in the state Senate — signed the bill last week.
The measure requires insurers to offer inpatient and outpatient addiction care, but allows caps to be set on the number of visits and annual costs of treatment. It also requires parity for a full range of mental-health conditions, closing gaps in a previous mental-health parity law.
Even limited parity for addiction was a distant dream when John Bunker, president of the New Hampshire treatment and prevention advocacy group New Futures, sat down in 2000 for a radio talk-show appearance with psychologist John Phillips, Ph.D., a board member of the New Hampshire Psychological Association (NHPA). "That's when we were introduced to New Futures, and we later met with them to discuss common issues," recalled Kirsten Singleton, executive director of NHPA.
One of those common interests was parity coverage for mental health and addiction. Mental health advocates in New Hampshire had previously succeeded in getting a partial mental-health parity bill signed into law, but wanted to go back to the legislature with a measure that would ensure that eating disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder were covered. To the surprise of some, advocates found themselves in agreement that addiction treatment also should be included in the follow-up legislation.
"We had a lot of therapists say that their patients are co-morbid, with both addiction and mental health conditions," recalled Singleton. "There were some people who said let's just get the bill passed, but a majority of the coalition were true supporters of substance abuse."
"When we introduced the bill in January 2001 a lot of lawmakers wanted substance abuse out, but the mental-health community was adamant about keeping it in," Singleton continued. Working together under the banner of Partners for Parity, addiction and mental-health advocates contacted lawmakers, mobilized their grassroots supporters, and together raised $30,000 for a study to refute claims that parity would be too expensive for employers and insurers.
"This was the first time we came together and worked together," said Joe Harding, executive director of Friends of Recovery New Hampshire (FOR-NH), an advocacy group comprised of people in recovery from addiction. "They couldn't have done it without us, and we couldn't have done it without them … We had some significant connections in the legislature and they did too; they have memberships and we also had that. The combined force of those connections and advocates meant that we got the legislation passed."
The Power of Grassroots Advocacy
Singleton credited FOR-NH and New Futures for their strong grassroots advocacy, making hundreds of phone calls to lawmakers and appearing before legislative committees to give personal testimony. Meanwhile, mental-health clinicians put their professional authority behind addiction research, driving home the message that addiction is a brain disease and a "real" diagnosis.
Even a trimmed-down measure might not have passed without the efforts of the grassroots addiction-treatment supporters, acknowledged Singleton. "They were really there at the hearings, especially when clinicians had a hard time getting out of work on short notice," she said.
One of the addiction community's key allies in the New Hampshire legislature was Sen. Lou D'Allesandro, a Manchester-area lawmaker and past director of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence's New Hampshire chapter. "Joe and his group were very influential," said D'Allesandro. "They were able to get people here and talking to [policymakers]," he added, saying that treatment advocates gave "compelling testimony" about the need for parity.
"It's an issue you need to get high visibility on, work the individual legislators, say it's cost-effective, and that treatment works," said D'Allesandro.
With insurers like Cigna claiming that addiction parity would cause premiums to balloon, advocates attacked the cost issue on a number of fronts. First, Partners for Parity spent $30,000 on a PriceWaterhouseCoopers report that showed the cost of full parity would only amount to 50 cents per plan member per month. Parity backers also pointed out the numerous cost savings associated with addiction treatment, such as reduced hospital and prison expenditures.
"If there isn't any treatment, then the result is prison, and our prisons are bulging at the seams," said D'Allesandro. "If you get someone into treatment, even if there's only a 50-percent success rate, those that go the other way are saving the state $25,000 a year in prison costs."
That message reached not only legislators, but the ears of the governor, as well. "National studies show that each dollar invested in treatment saves $4 to $7 in social costs," said Pamela Walsh, press secretary for Shaheen. "Eighty percent of people in New Hampshire prisons have a substance-abuse problem, and investing in treatment and prevention can save on prison costs. The insurance costs are minimal, especially when compared to the savings."
Still, the Republican leadership in the New Hampshire legislature opposed the bill when it was introduced, and sent it to the conservative Finance Committee, headed by Rep. Neal Kurk. "The bill was referred to the committee by the House leadership thinking it wouldn't be very receptive, but a year later they passed it on a 17-0 vote," said D'Allesandro. "The reason was they heard from grassroots constituents about the impact of the problem, that there are solutions, and that they need insurance coverage to address their problems."
A Partial Victory, But Promise for the Future
The victory was also the result of compromise: full addiction parity became partial parity, with few guarantees about coverage limits. "The bill leaves it up to insurers to define the level of benefits, but legislators said the benefit has to be something substantive or they will readdress the issue," said Harding.
In the end, the parity bill passed relatively easily in the House, which approved the Senate version of the legislation in a 187-140 vote. Support was bipartisan in both the House and Senate. "Legislators voted against their own leaders, and that's pretty impressive," said Singleton.
Still, addiction advocates are not entirely satisfied. "I see the impact being the removal of one more obstacle to treatment," said Tess Gomes, project director for Manchester's Demand Treatment! project, a Join Together supported effort to increase demand for addiction services in communities.
"We're cautious because we know that this isn't the golden ring," said Gomes, whose project goals include making employers and employees more aware of the need for addiction treatment. "We realize that this is partial parity and there are no minimums required of insurers or employers. They can negotiate $500 in benefits if they want."
Added Gomes: "It's a step in the right direction, but unless we have fuller parity, we still need to work on education of employers and getting the support of the community to say this is an issue and we want this, just like we want two weeks' vacation. We'd like to build on this law to work with employers and chambers of commerce, to talk to them about how parity affects them, to hear their viewpoints and open a dialogue, and educate them about the benefits of addiction treatment."
As they work on future strategy, both addiction and mental-health advocates agree that the parity battle has forged some important new partnerships that should benefit constituents in both communities. "Even if we're not completely satisfied, the root system just got expanded," said Gomes.


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By ALEXIS ZOTOS6 News Reporter
KNOXVILLE (WATE) - Two Knox County parents are now facing charges in the death of their 6-month-old daughter.
The shooting happened in the 2400 block of Alcoa Highway around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Rural/Metro transported the 6-month-old baby girl to University of Tennessee Medical Center where she was pronounced dead.
The girl's parents, Ken Mason, 40, and Angela Major, 26, have now been charged with reckless homicide. According to the Knox County Sheriff's Office, both have an extensive criminal history.
Investigators say the parents were involved in a domestic dispute at the time of the shooting. Authorities are not releasing how many rounds were fired or where the child was shot. The handgun was recovered at the scene.
Major has also been charged with aggravated burglary, aggravated arson, theft and vandalism. There is also an outstanding warrant for Mason on failure to obey court orders. He also has two failures to appear on juvenile petitions.
Two other women from the scene of the shooting left with sheriff's deputies. Their role in the investigation is unclear.
Sheriff's deputies, detectives and a forensic team spent more than six hours collecting evidence and piecing together the scene at the home off Alcoa Highway.
Brandy Mecklemore, a friend of Angela Major, identified the baby girl as Kelsey in pictures on Major's Facebook page. She says she is in shock tonight.
"What the hell happened? What were you doing? Why was there a gun anywhere near that child?" Mecklemore asked while fighting back tears.
Mecklemore said she has known Major for years.
Majors has four other children from different fathers, but they do not live with her, Mecklemore said.
"She lost custody of all her other four other children," she said.
Mecklemore said despite Majors' lengthy criminal history she tried to be a good mom and doesn't think she would intentionally hurt her child.
"I would pray to God when I say no [she wouldn't hurt her], that it is the truth. She doesn't pass off as the type of person who do that, she has had a lot of troubles, she's had a lot of bad things happen to her by her own doings," Mecklemore said.
Right now she is just struggling to understand how or why this could have happened.
"I have no clue what happened or how something this horrendous could happen to such a small child," she said.
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subset: commoncrawl


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Falling for a sensei... isn't that illegal? (A Kakashi Hatake love story) {21}
He grabbed my hand and lead me to the hospital, as fast as he could.
We walked into her room and I frowned before slapping the back of his head so hard I heard the echo from the waiting room.
"What was that for!" Shouta demanded.
"Don't do that!" I ordered Kazuki. "I seriously thought that was true!"
"You thought that she died." He laughed.
"For all I know, yeah! I was with Tsunade for the past three hours, remember?"
He grunted something unintelligent as I walked over and smiled at her.
"What were you doing with Tsunade?" She asked.
"Nothing." I answered after another pause.
"Apparently, Lady Hokage doesn't want her to tell." Kazuki answered with an eye roll as he walked up behind me.
The room went silent as Kakashi and Morikoma stared at me, their faces full of surprise and disbelief (well, what's showing in his face) while the other two looked at eachother, confused.
"When do you leave?" Kakashi asked.
"Hell if I know-"
Morikoma broke me off. "What did I say about those words."
"Gomennasai, Morikoma-sensei." I sighed and rolled my eyes to Kashi.
"Have you gotten your information yet?" He hinted.
"Yep. I think it was Yamato or maybe Yugao that gave it to me. One of the two."
"How can you not remember?" Shouta, well, shouted.
"It was dark, and I wasn't really paying too much attention!" I snapped.
"Because that's soo like you." He rolled his eyes sarcastically.
"Oh shuddup, Shouta." I ordered and looked away.
"Hey, just because your a chunin and I'm not doesn't give you the right to order me around. Expecially since your only sixteen."
I bit my tongue. "Your a butt, you know that?"
"What? Did I finally win an argument?"
"No, you haven't. You think you did, but you didn't." I answered and looked to him.
"But I did win. That's why you haven't protested yet. I get it, I won."
"No. I'm telling you this because you don't get it. You think you get it, which is not the same as actually getting it. Get it?"
"Wait- What?"
Kakashi laughed.
"It means no one won because in essence you cannot win in an argument for there are three truths. Your truth, my truth and the truth truth."
"Your just saying that because you lost."
"You cannot win an argument therefore you cannot lose an argument."
Morikoma rolled her eyes.
"Your only saying that because I won."
"Like I said." I remarked as I brought my two fingers up to my right temple. "If I'm still sane by the time you finish your training, it'll be a miracle."
"WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!" They both demanded as I turned away from them.
"Screw this argument, I'm not even going to participate. Why don't you two go and... argue with yourself."
"Ok, what happened with Tsunade?" Kazuki inquired. "Normally you would've been all over that argument."
"Nothing happened with Tsunade." I turned to the two ANBU's. "Anyway, I'm soo not wearing that thing."
"You have to wear it on missions." Morikoma answered.
"No not that thing, that things cute, I meant the other one."
"Your supposed to wear that, too."
I shot a glance and Kakashi with a cocked crow and a smug-ish grin.
"I hate those things." He answered.
"Your not the only one."
"They'll make you put it on." Morikoma practically ordered.
"Peer pressure is bad, you can't make me do anything I dont wanna do." I said in a baby-ish voice.
"Do it." Kazuki ordered.
"That's not what your supposed to say."
"I'm not kidding around." I stated flatly.
"So, what animal do you have?" Kakashi asked, somewhat urgent, but clearly not showing it, though you and Morikoma picked up on it.
"I love little lost puppies!" I said giddily.
"What the crap, that makes no sense!" The two boys pointed out.
"Actually, it makes perfect sense." Kakashi remarked. "And it's not a puppy."
I crossed my arms and leaned forward slightly. "I love puppies, so I'll call it a puppy. It doesn't matter if you call it a dog, which it really is, but I'm going to call it a puppy, because puppies are cute, and this is cute, too."
"What the crud are you talking about?" Kazuki cut in.
"Puppies, silly." I grinned wickedly at him as the two ANBU's laughed.
"You keep refering to it what is it?"
"What is it? Silly. Didn't I tell you?" Morikoma's eyes fought not to widen. "It is none of your business."
Morikoma couldn't help but laugh as I clapped my hands together.
"Well, anyway, I've got to get up early tomorrow, I'm going to bed, feel better soon, Morikoma-sensei."
"Good night." She answered.
"Sweet dreams." I heard Kakashi say under his breath. Suddenly I found myself smiling as I opened the door and flashed him a quick smile, but it also showed my pink-tinted cheeks, too...
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NY Islanders Three-Headed Beast – Why The Goalie Situation Will Continue To Be A Problem
BDGallof | Sep 21, 2011 | Comments 14
You do not need much hockey acumen to know that three goalie systems do not work. You just need to be a recent Isles fan to recall that it was not that long ago that a subpar DiPietro, a backup playoff caliber Dwayne Roloson, and a rusty and off scheduled Marty Biron who was relegated to a press box.
Goalies aren't wind-up toys, who just need to be wound and placed on the ice on a whim. They are mercurial and eccentric people who have rituals and habits to somehow get the desire and focus to have rubber pucks slapped at them at high velocity.
The addition of DiPietro, who had nary his own schedule to get up to NHL speed, just his own competitive all-be-damned edge and his friendship with Charles Wang to ride right into goal, threw the Isles goal minding into a tizzy. The team, much less the goaltenders, never recovered. That trade deadline Garth actually considered dealing both Biron and Roloson, knowing a vet could be had later that summer to be backup to their 15-year albatross. Nobody bit on Biron, and even Roloson would not get near the Isles barometer of value.
Other teams can tell you other horror tales of three goalies. There is just no schedule to it. No working around it. Invariably, someone sits or has their knee blow up like a kid's balloon to be perhaps shaped into a dog or a hat until next season.
In fact, the 15-year deal of Rick DiPietro has become one of the worst thought out contracts in all-professional sports. What has become clear, whether you root for the guy or just want him to get punched in the face by Mike Tyson, is that he has finally has the potential to be a disruption to the equilibrium, general health, and the future of the Isles rebuild starting this season.
Sorry, just no getting around this anymore. No more dancing around the subject.
Neil Smith knew it was a bad idea. Not that he was acting like any hero as he and the internal staff had a virtual war go on during his brief tenure. However one of his final acts was an attempt to countermand Charles Wang's desire to give The Rick a longterm insane deal by calling his agent to arrange a meeting to do a more reasonable 6-year term.
That was the final straw. Their battle then went underground into an under wraps NHL courtroom-like drama of testimony later on, as the Isles booted Neil, kept the system in place, and moved to Garth Snow. Charles then hammered out the deal that makes Isles fans moan in the night. The final moral to this story is fan; player and team beware of contracts outside the normal scope. Nobody can live up to it. Just ask Mike Richards and Philly.
So now here we are, another year, and Rick DiPietro even lower in Isles fans minds. His play last year, despite better health showed poorly on the stat charts. His numbers cannot be pinned on the substandard defense alone when Roloson could take that same and make him look like gold. Of course, his comment last season seemed to light a fire under fans where it was viewed that he dismissed any and all other goaltenders to actually pushing him, much less perhaps pushing him out. He was so obtuse to his reality and situation in that interview it seemed like a bit of a put-on.
Rick hates the press. Anyone who knows and has dealt with him knows this. Getting clarity or even a story on your own terms out of him is near impossible. Much has been made of his flip egocentric comment. With no sly wink or twinkle of the eye, we are left with the sad reality. He doesn't "get it". With his now opposite standpoint this summer via interviews, it is clear he's talking the talk, but does he know the walk anymore?
Does Rick understand the hard truth that most fans are about ready to move on? Now or later, the writing is on the wall. He just knows he has a friend in Charles that gives him more leeway than commonsense would allow.
This all said, it is not like the isles were exactly thrown from they playoffs due to Rick's trials and tribulations. The timing of Rick's trouble was not grand, but it isn't like it killed the Isles cup hopes. It wasn't like Poulin must start or sit. He is better to develop at Bridgeport until it is clear where he need to be. It's not like Kosikken was knocking at the door as he was scrambling to sew the holes in the back of the net.
Enter Al Montoya, who never got his shot in two places thanks to good prospects and scouting as the Rangers had Henrik and Phoenix has that other guy… Ummm… oops, nevermind… Bryzgalov is the Flyers goalie for the next 9 years or until they fail in a playoff round.
Montoya looks like one of those late bloomers. No huge top goalie projection anymore, but a solid steady guy who can do whatever needs to be done perhaps. Or until a wunderkind erupts, sending him packing or backing up for a third time. That's NHL goaltending.
The problem is the Nabokov Situation, which is about as concerning as the Bonnie Situation in Pulp Fiction right now. Here is a guy who won 44 games in his last season in the NHL, despite tanking in the playoffs, which seemed to kill his realistic value when he and his agent overrated and overvalued him last year.
Here is also a guy with a track record, despite being "too good to play for the lowly Isles" last season when they pulled him off the waiver wire. Talk about your hang-ups. He has a playoff reaching (despite tanking) pedigree, who also is now in the mix for a mere song this season thank to the righteous and rightful tolling of his contract by the NHL. He will cost the Isles a mere $570,000. Hell, that's less than Andy Hilbert.
As DP was able to stay relatively healthy last season, chances are he will do the same this summer and out the gate. The problem is that he is not even a shade of his former self. My belief is that level that the Isles need him to be and play is what will only send him to the IR again. This is a problem.
There is also the problem of The Rick's head. Rick, who was the guest of an all-star game just once, likes to compare himself and his situation to that of Tom Brady. The only thing at DiPietro has in common with Tom Brady is his pay grade. The problem is that he is no such level. He is far more comparable to Drew Bledsoe…another top pick and face of the franchise of the New England Patriots who got swept out of the way.
The sooner all recognize this reality the better it will be for all.
The Isles PR department story is that this could be a triple threat. Nothing could be further from the truth. This is a three-prong problem with no sure thing of a solution. What the Isles need to hope on is that someone here or elsewhere goes down like a Mangano Referendum vote. Only if a team comes looking for a Montoya or Nabokov, or DP has an orbital bone relapse courtesy another goaltender who tires of his still almost rookie-like on-ice behavior, will this come to some sort of temporary conclusion. Unless Montoya or Poulin becomes ready to take the reins and not let go will this begin to become clear-cut. That or DiPietro gets some sort of bionics.
Until then this potential mess will get Messier.
Errr… messier.
Triple threat indeed.
Filed Under: Featured • New York Islanders
About the Author: B.D. Gallof is a published writer and hockey blogger. He writes about Hockey, NY Islanders & the NY Islanders venue situation for CBS New York. BD has been written up in Sports Illustrated, TSN.ca, the NY Times Slapshots blog, Yahoo's Sports and SportsBusiness Journal. He has been a featured blogger for The Huffington Post, as well as owner, lead writer, and managing editor at HockeyIndependent.com.
Comments (14)
We can only hope the Isles are as "serious" as they claim to be with spots being earned this year. And if they carry 3 goaltenders like they did 2 years ago then we know they have learned absolutely nothing from past mistakes.
There's generally an optimistic (and refreshing) vibe around the fan base and the team that this year could be when they finally take a significant step forward. Handing the golden boy a free pass to start because of his contract/relationship w/ Wang would be a disastrous way to derail that much-needed optimism. In short, nothing would be better to see the Rick put up and most of all SHUT UP
Unfortunately, Rick will be on this team, because the Isles need his salary to reach the cap floor. Best hope is that he can go on LTIR, that way the salary still counts, but we won't have to see him play. I really hope Jack is allowed to go with the hot hand in goal. I want to be optimistic, but I'm also a realist. I guess we will find out soon enough.
Nice entry. Agree 100%. Three goalies is not like carrying 7 defensemen or an extra forward. It simply does not work.
Lots of teams carry both without a negative impact. Really, no one is talking about how Gillies was bringing the team down by being in the press box. The extra forward or defenseman is may not be super desirable, but it is pretty common.
DP is going to be an Islander until his contract runs out or Wang buys him out. He's not retiring. He's not going to quit. Wang was a dope for giving him that ridiculous deal. Now he, the team and its fans have to live with it.
That being said, I agree with you that his perteptual rehab did not hurt the team. The team sucked. It was a bottom feeder for the past four years and it was so for reasons other than goaltending. DP was not preventing some stud prospect from getting a shot or holding a contender back from winning a championship. However, that is on the verge of changing (hopefully).
My guess is that DP will continue to get a chance until this team is truly ready to be a perrenial contender and/or at least one of Poulin, Koskinen or Nilsson are ready to be full-time NHLers. Once those things happen, if DP is not carrying his weight by living up to the contract with his play, I think Wang will buy him out.
As crazy and loony as Charles Wang is, I don't think that he is dumb enough to let this franchise wallow in mediocrity and not become successful out of some foolish loyalty to a friend. Wang bought out Yashin when Snow told him he needed to. I think Wang will do the same with DP when he approached to do so. We'll see.
Thats just stupidity if they DP underwhelms in preseason and we still play him as starter.
Montoya the only guy that has proven himself so far. You are right on BD. He is the late bloomer. He start until the job is taken away from him from Poulin or Nilsson.
Nabby is just a nice free card for us. No cost since if it should not work out. He is all upside.
Which bring me back to DP "as Drew Bledsoe". Nice one BD.
He is our last tie to the milbury era. When team is prepared to move foward completely, he is last piece we need to part with. TIME TO RETIRE RICKY, save us from 10 more year of payment.
"He is our last tie to the milbury era."
Well…besides Blake Comeau and Frans Nielsen…
First off DP's not going to retire and leave millions of dollars on the table nobody in their right mind would if you want him off the team the Isles will have to buy him out and blame Wang for this ridiculous situation not DP. You can definitely blame DP for having a inflated ego. Second, Montoya hasn't proven anything yet, he hasn't played enough NHL games to judge him yet so let's just wait and see how things go during camp and the start of the season before we anoint him as #1. I agree having 3 goalies is not a good idea and good luck to Cappy in having to deal with this.
dp is a bum. I'm hoping he tears his ACL or something before thanksgiving or christmas. This team goes no where with red light ricky in net.
And someone said they need him on the team to stay above the cap floor. They add niederreiter to the team then they don't need dp's cap hit at all. Also tavares has a new contract that will kick in next season, and strome will most likely be on the team next season full time. So dp is not needed anymore. He is a waste of space. And I wish that overblown ego of his would get taken down a couple dozen pegs. Also for him to compare himself to brady. There is a HUGE difference. Brady has 3 championships. You got ZERO championships dp.
It is a dicey situation for sure.
I still have hope for DP. I admit I may be blind to certain things but I stick to your point that despite his injuries and such, DP is not the reason why the Isles have failed to make the playoffs the l;ast few seasons.
I have to believe that one of these goalies has to be dealt.
How awesome it would have been to get Samsonov for DP back in the day. Osgood stays, we do better in the playoffs, no fifteen year deal……but then again, we might still have Milbury, we may not have Tavares (but we could…..or Kane, Teows, Parise…..that's a scientific problem of chance) and we might have been good those years going into the LHP or arena vote.
Who cares. We would have passed the egomaniacal overrated injury ignoring chronic breakage in net to another team. Boston.
That said, Montoya has to run with his first chance (after Rick's first blow-out loss and Nabokov's pedestrian showing after the warning signs in Russia – which I hope not to see).
[...] HOCKEY INDEPENDENT: BD Gallof looks at the Islanders "three-headed monster" of Rick DiPietro, Evgeni Nabokov and Al Montoya in goal to potentially begin the season. [...]
Having played at a relatively competitive level of hockey and been in a 3 goalie tandem at the same time, I don't necessarily think that it is going to be as bad as the DP/Roloson/Biron fiasco. I think the biggest part of the disruption can be overcome by having defined roles, a series of guaranteed starts early on, and a chance to earn more playing time. The biggest thing that throws you off your game is not knowing when you're going to play again, which definitely killed Biron. I also think that Capuano and co are managing expectations better (not great, not good, but better) this year as well. The only real problem is that if DP is really off of his game again and doesn't get much game time, then he could become a clubhouse cancer of sorts just by brooding. Either way, Nabokov ideally should be gone whenever another team has a goaltending injury to deal with.


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MAD honors the life and style of Quentin Crisp
As I mentioned here yesterday, Paul Iacono is the 23-year-old actor from MTV's The Hard Times of RJ Berger. He's also in some short plays, a new MTV show--and he's a gay role model! Here's our interview from earlier today in which Paul came out: Hi, Paul! Please tell me about the plays. I'm in J ... More >>
I'm the documentary king, having appeared in docs about bisexuality, Paris Hilton, The Boys in the Band, Charles Bush, Jackie Curtis, the Gramercy Hotel, Jack Wrangler, the Roxy, Squeezebox, Michael Lucas, Kiki & Herb, Divine, Vito Russo, Michael Alig, Bert Stern, Quentin Crisp, Joey Arias, F ... More >>
Eighteen years after their breakout successand they're back in theaters, too
The pint-sized sit-com star hosted my birthday party at the Times Square club kid hangout Club USA sometime in the '90s, and he was utterly delightful. Here's Catherine McGann's amazing photo capturing the sight of Gary and I, fronted by Brit wit Quentin Crisp, Oscar nominated actress Sylvi ... More >>
An ice queen and an English dandy at BAM
Plus Abe Lincoln's logs and more than 15 minutes at Warhol's birthday party.
Yes, I'm planning to go to the sprawling bookstore in the Lincoln Center area to peruse the shelves for discount recipe books and sexual board games. And while I'm there, I might as well take part in the "Fresh Fruit Festival" event--you heard me--in which different LGBT writers will read from their ... More >>
Quentin Crisp was the frilly British poufter who ceaselessly spouted aphorisms, his wit hiding the fact that he had come of age through oppression and abuse in puritanical England. In the '70s, he came to New York to do a live show and stayed, showering us with his wisdoms, hats, and weird viewpoi ... More >>
A flamboyant icon's 100th birthday
The catwalks, the clothes, the chit-chat: "Which of the Palin men do you think is cutest?"
One man's (possibly true) tale of Scottish gangsters, nice clothes, and a thousand prostitutes
Blogging invades the Met's Costume Institute
When a writer hangs up her Internet shingle, fans go wild. And order ottomans.
The 46th Annual Obie Awards
The Fall 2001 Fashion Shows
Bette Bourne Brings Quentin Crisp Back to Life
Men Who Love Military Men Too MuchAnd the Sailors Who Oblige Them
The Year in Letters


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"We can change cultural norms by being the change."—Celine Schillinger, ECA
Image: Change Agents Worldwide
"We are here to help define the future of work through positive, irreversible, unprecedented and inevitable change."—Luis Suarez, SCA
"Innovation is about connecting people to make ideas happen."—CheeChin Liew, ECA
"All, but one, of the personal, social and political boxes which prevailed in the 19C have disappeared in a global transformative movement."—Thierry de Baillon, SCA
"How does a company think to stay relevant when its employees are disengaged and kept into their box as a unit of production?"—Dany DeGrave, ECA


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Here's a freshman GOP congressman who barely won election, calling "Barack Hussein Obama" a "a low-level socialist agitator" who shows "third world dictator-like arrogance."
Here's the freshman GOP congressman's reward: nearly half a million bucks raised in three months for his reelection. This sort of speechifying's made him a top fundraiser. Last election cycle, he amassed $6.5 million, or about five times what the typical congressional candidate raises.
One more interesting fact: His second-largest category of donors was "Republican/conservative." His biggest category, which was nearly twice as big as No. 2, was "retired."