Bobby Short est morte

One of my best friends is an odd mixture of sophistication and naivete. He also happens to be African-American and gay. A fan of Short's, not too many years ago he went to a concert of Bobby's here in L.A. (the city where the future comes to die) and was shocked, Shocked, SHOCKED, I tell you, to discover that the entire audience consisted of almost nothing but gay black men. Theretofore, he had absolutely no knowledge whatsoever that Short was a sistah. Something that hasn't been pointed out much in the mainstream press the past few days. No reason it should, by the way. But if you want the real dish --- per usual --- you have to come on over to Blogville, USA.

If for no other reason, Bobby Short will be remembered for singing the immortal lines to the title tune of Merchant-Ivory's Savages: "They call us savages because we dare to love. . .."

A propos of nothing in particular, I just wrote the following e-mail to a friend:

I have this theory that nearly ALL guys named Scott are gay. It's the new "Bruce." Which reminds me of something that I said one time to my good friend and constant traveling companion of the past thirty-five years, David Ehrenstein.

ME: Oh, there's this guy I know by the name of Scott, and he has great taste in singers, i.e. Betty Carter, Sinatra, Abbey Lincoln, et al. But the ringer is that his favorite is Liza Minnelli. He's married with a bunch of kids. And he's straight. But he just went to see Liza three nights running at the Palace.

DAVID: Well, he might have been straight before, but he's not anymore. (Bud-a-bing!)

Shortly after that, Scott DID, in fact, come out ---quaint phrase from the before time. I rest my case.

Later, I learned that, at one time, Scott been a professional ice skater, nearly all of whom, I'm sure you must know by now, are gay. Must have something to do with the vibrations from the skate blades constantly stimulating their, um, nether regions to the point where they lose all powers of binary sexual (not to mention musical) discrimination.

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