Whether you are talking for her or against her, you’re still talking about her. Nothing makes her happier, so enough.
Road Notes:
Have I already told you how much I love Seattle? I love it. The beauty, the food, the folks. Paul Bauer, a proud civic booster and long-time producer friend picked me up at Sea-Tac in his black El Camino. He and his car are very popular with parking attendants. We vroomed into town, past the gorgeous library and city hall. At the hotel I took some industrial strength cold medicine to mask the gross effects of a pesky cold and then it was off to the 100 year old Moore Theater for a fun-filled Saturday night show. My great grandmother’s name was Mary Monica Monahan Moore, so I felt right at home.
After the show, Paul and I made our traditional pilgrimage to the fabulous Flying Fish restaurant in the jumping Bell Town section of Seattle. Get the coconut shrimp. I hadn’t really been able to taste anything all day. Until then. The restaurant is woman-owned. Heck, the state is woman-owned! The two state senators and the governor are a trifecta of feminism.
Paul graciously took me to my 8am flight to LA where I got to spend some time with my fabulous goddaughter, Sophie, who is getting as tall as me. Her mom, Leslie and I went to the amazing WACK feminist art retrospective at the Geffen Museum. Even though Geffen dissed Hillary, go see it if you can.
Unlike Paul, I’m not a car hound, so I rented a sensible white Ford Focus for my trip to Palm Spings. Nothing gives me greater perverse pleasure than handing those car keys to the mandatory and ubiquitous LA valet parker. I drove into Palm Springs through a vale of hundreds of slowly rotating, huge white windmills. So dreamy and surreal. My community housing was with old pals Ginny Foat and Pam Genvereno. Ginny and I go back to 1983 National N.O.W. and Pam is and old friend and former owner of the Pied Piper in Ptown.
The show at the beautiful Annenberg Theatre was great fun. I think I got them warmed up for the Dinah Shore tournament in two weeks. Next day it was back west to Pasadena, again by those windmills, and the world’s largest outlet mall Camazon or Amazon or something, to emcee the Gill Foundation’s OutGiving Conference.
Reminder: Daylight Savings is three weeks early this year. It’s one of His Extreme Lameduckness’s energy saving ideas. He’s not the fall guy. He’s the spring guy. If it means I see his face one hour less three weeks sooner, I’m down with it.

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Had a blast in New Paltz the other Friday night, as part of the celebration of the opening of the Hudson Valley LGBTQ Center. After an obscenely short period of organizing and fundraising time, the building was bought, refurbished and the doors opened with 850 members!! Board chair, Ginny Appuzo, used her organizing experience, inspiring wit and a talented board to push the process forward. Actually they weren’t allowed to process. Their meetings were an hour long.
I stayed at the lovely LeFevre House B and B for the afternoon, did the show to a raucous audience and then attended a reception after, catered by the Culinary Institute of America. Thank god there were a lot of familiar faces – Alix Dobkin! Retts! Judith Turkel! – at the reception or I would have eaten all the dark chocolate caramels with sea salt topping. The Hudson Valley LGBTQ Center has awakened Rip Van Winkle but good. He doesn’t want to miss a thing.
The next day I was off to Dallas for a show produced by the multi-talented Susan Gore. She picked me up at the airport in a hot Chevy truck with decaled flames shooting back from the hood. The gorgeous landmark First Unitarian Church was the site of the night’s fun and was followed by a reception for NCLR. Again I saw lots of familiar and new faces and thus missed out on an amazing cake. I do believe my mother would come from the great beyond and crack me upside the head if I talked with my mouth full. She watches my points.
Texas seemed diminished by the loss of the great Texans, Ann Richards and Molly Ivins. And Anna Nicole Smith too. The Newsweek cover “Girls Gone Wild” does not begin to capture the true wildness of the girls who are gone. And as war rages in Iraq and George decides to turn toward Iran, it’s really the boys who are gone wild.
February 15 is the birthday of that great upstate suffragist, Susan B. “Failure is Impossible” Anthony. We’ll be celebrating the day in our house. My gal pal wears Elizabeth Cady Stanton drag. I’ll be the tall one in the wire rimmed specs. It’s a great scene.

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As the great Kathy and Mo once sang, “On the road again. Dit dit dit dit dit. On the road again.” I don’t know the song either. But I was on the road again, for the first stop on my Climate Change Tour in Detroit, Michigan, the home of Aretha Franklin and Patti Smith. My heroes.
They weren’t at the show, dang, but it was fun anyway. The Royal Oak Theater is a gem of an old theater, being lovingly restored and cared for by Justin Miller and all his fine support staff. I had written a lot of new material – oh, heck, the political stuff seems to just surge out of me – and I even remembered a lot of it. The State of the Union address [aka “If I Did it”] Dick Cheney almost shooting Wolf Blitzer. It was a pleasure to be in Michigan again, especially since all their hard mid-term election effort returned their legislature to the Dems and re-elected their Governer, Jenifer Granholme. Change is in the air.
The next night in Minneapolis at the gorgeous Pantages Theater, it was a see and be seen event! Eileen Scallen, on the advisory Board of NCLR, stepped up and produced the show and it was a flawless night. Karyn and Sharyn of the Care and Share Show, opened with a hilarious send-up of lesbian feminism and me. After the show, at the NCLR reception, I met years of my history in the Twin Cities. From the days of the Women’s Coffeehouse, to the time I got put on the “do not ask back” list at the St. Kate’s, to the time I did my best Garrison Keillor imitation at the World Theater – it was a night of great conversation and reminders of what my hair used to look like.
The next morning at a brunch benefit for NCLR, I met lots of interesting ladies – especially the women from Smitten Kitten (smittenkittenonline.com) a feminist owned, transgender friendly sex toy store. Not only do they do free shipping, the toys they make are absolutely made out of non-carcinogenic materials. Check it out.
My galpal met me in Minneapolis, there’s a sequitor for you, and it was great to hear her laugh in the audience. Like she’s never heard the stuff before! We spent a great Sunday with Ann Vitala and Laura Ayres – visiting art museums, going to see the movie, “Stomp the Yard” [not enough gals, but amazing dancing], eating and admiring the beautiful twin cities and the amazing Mississippi.

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