I call Walter's glucosamine pills his treats. They are apparently pretty tasty. Even the cats are willing to eat them.

Before Harvey had been taking his glucosamine/chondroitin/msm treats long enough to start feeling better, I emailed the outfit that makes them to offer my congratulations on the flavor. Guy emailed me back, and I ended up in a fairly long email exchange with him about the improvements in Harvey's activity level, ending with me sending a video of Harvey chasing his tail after he'd been taking them for a month.

There was a conspiracy theory that Michelle Obama is a man? Really?

Yep. I don't know how I stumbled onto it, but it is cray-cray with a side of you-are-shitting-me-you-do-NOT-believe-this-crap: link and link and more, but really, who wants to read up on that?

Warning: links may make you feel dirty and also despair for mankind. Uh, so to speak.

There was a conspiracy theory that Michelle Obama is a man? Really?

Yeah. Totally nuts, but, hell, Obama drew fire for ordering mustard on his cheeseburger.

He did? Oh, right, because it was fancy Dijon mustard. I did hear about that.

There was a conspiracy theory that Michelle Obama is a man? Really?

Because women can't be strong and have great arms! Probably also because there's some fucked up narratives about black women in this country.

So the epic of the movie filming continues. My co-worker told me today it's probably this movie, which makes me hella sad, because ita would have been all over something with Tom Hardy in it.

I'm kind of astonished at the scale of the effort, though: they're bringing in 120 people to film a couple of scenes in a mockup of a plane on the edge of a cliff. With generators and porta potties and the whole nine yards. And I'm sure it's just for a few minutes of filming, crazy. No wonder movies cost so much to make!

Looks like it was based from an off the cuff remark that Joan Rivers made AND THEN SHE DIED!!!

Or maybe a few conspiracy nuts thought it and then Joan Rivers said it and that makes it TRUE because Joan Rivers told the TRUTH and never said anything that wasn't true about anyone ever. And then Joan Rivers DIED during surgery which means she was murdered because 81 year olds don't die during surgery. No one mentions that the clinic was found to be negligent but I'm sure that can be spun as a cover story.

And coming at the end of the Presidency it's like people are grasping at straws.

Also she has arms and she's not "attractive" and her daughters don't look like her.

My response to the crazy-ass rumors is that even if they were true, so what?

There's been a long standing bit of subcultural gossip about secretly or not-out transgender people. It starts back in the late fifties/early sixties when the surgery was starting to improve under a doctor in Egypt. That's where Amanda Lear had her transitional surgery (financed by Salvador Dali, by several accounts. She was in his entourage for years.) That's also when the model April Ashley was outed as being transgender (ending her career).

Anyway, once that notion took hold it was applied to just about any woman who had a strong jawline who had a veiled past. Donna Summer was probably the most famous example of a famous woman reputed to have been born a man (untrue in her case). That's the backstory on how that notion gained some currency, even though it's been falsely applied many times over.

April Ashley's fascinating story: [link]

Wow, interesting, David!!

I went to a bar and was waiting for it to open with a couple friends, so we could watch the women's soccer at 3pm here. And then we got them to put the Canadian channel on and watch their commentary. Better commentary, much worse cinematography (on the games but mostly on the pre-taped segments with athletes).