Right-wing fishermen for gay marriage:

I think gay marriage is kind of like rhinoceroses mating. It don’t affect me much and it ain’t something I necessarily want to watch but I’ll defend their rights to do so.

BrendanLoy.com: Defending marriage from gays and mating rhinoceri since 2002. :)

P.S. Insert your own “horny” joke here.

For those of you clamoring not for more Chuck Berry, but for more Alexis Fleming, today is your lucky day:

That’s from my latest iPhoto gallery, showing pics from my trip home.

The bulk of the pictures so far are from my visit to Smith on Saturday, including a photo of me with fellow NHS Class of 1999 grad Kat Rickenbacker, another new Smith alumna whom I ran into while waiting for the family to gather:

Most of the Smith pics, though, are of Alex and other family members — especially my very cute, one-year-old second cousin Malcolm:

While we’re in the cute cousin department, on Sunday I hung out when Jen and her 8-year-old cousin Caitlin, who loves me because I give her piggyback and shoulder rides whenever we get together:

The newest pictures show my honorary sister, Kim Stone, playing tennis:

Check ‘em all out!

During my sojourn in Connecticut, the world has not stopped turning, and news has not stopped breaking. But I have been, for the most part, too busy/lazy to post about it. Here, however, is a brief overview of some stories that I should be posting about. :)

Gay marriage in Massachusetts: Today’s the day. But is there really any point in posting about this? You all know where I stand, and I know where all of you (i.e., my regular readers) stand. Blah blah, civil rights, blah blah, judicial activism. Been there, done that. Moving on…

Report says Rummy ordered torture; Pentagon denies it: Full ramifications not immediately clear, since who knows if it’s true? If true, smoking gun. If not true, liberal media bias. Again, we’ve had this debate before. Moving on…

Saddam’s WMD: Poorly constructed sarin-gas artillery round detonates in Iraq; was probably an old Saddam relic. Again, full ramifications not immediately clear. Maybe I’ll have more to say when the fog of war lifts.

Iraqi governing council president killed: Sad, but not as devastating as it might seem, since it’s a monthly rotating presidency anyway. Also, I don’t need to post about it, because CNN Breaking News did so for me.

Michael Moore’s big day: Audience gives anti-Bush documentary “Fahrenheit 9/11″ the longest standing ovation (20 minutes!) in the history of the Cannes film festival. But are we really surprised? They’re French. Drudge goes nuts. But are we really surprised? He’s Drudge.

NBA, NHL playoffs: Eh. Wake me when it’s the finals. Scratch that; wake me when somebody is one game away from winning the finals.

UPDATE: I will add this, regarding gay marriage, from here in Connecticut:

Connecticut law does not allow for same-sex marriages, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said today. …

Blumenthal said there is nothing in Connecticut law that allows or authorizes marriage licenses to be issued to same-sex couples.

Blumenthal said Connecticut statutes refer to a “bride” and “groom” and a “husband” and “wife” and said these terms are commonly understood to refer to a man and a woman.

He declined to say whether Connecticut can recognize same-sex marriages from out of state.

“An answer would require me to make law, not interpret it,” Blumenthal said.

And non-legislative officeholders would never dream of doing that. :)

Congratulations to all the newly married Massachusetts couples. Blogger John Scalzi has some advice for them. It applies just as well to straights as to gays, and I e-mailed the link to Becky. Some good stuff, there.

Just saw Troy with Jen. Liked it a lot. Thought it was well-paced, generally well-acted, and beautifully filmed. Loved the guy from X-Men 2 and the Lord of the Rings actors. The Trojan king was great, too. And the scene with the rolling balls of fire was awesome!

Was neutral regarding Brad Pitt’s ass; preferred Helen of Troy’s ass. The horse was pretty cool. Loved the climactic moment when Legolas — er, I mean Paris — shot Achilles’ heel. (Them elves can shoot!) Was glad that Boromir got to live through this movie.

Notwithstanding that I’m referring to some by their Lord of the Rings names, I actually found it quite easy to keep track of the multitude of characters in Troy, which is unusual for me — I often have trouble with plots that have a whole bunch of important characters, like this one does. But the movie did a very good job, I thought, of making clear exactly what was going on, who was doing what and why, while keeping the action moving.

I haven’t read the Iliad, so I can’t assess Troy on its faithfulness to the text. But on its own merits, I give it four out of five shillelaghs.

UPDATE: Becky, who saw it yesterday in Arizona, didn’t like it. She calls it “$200 million worth of average cinema” and gives it a C. But many of her complaints revolve around unfaithfulness to the Iliad, which, like I said, I can’t say anything about, having never read it. Also, Becky is generally a harsher movie critic than I am.

No word on Troy from BoiFromTroy. :)

Next week: Shrek 2. The week after that: The Day After Tomorrow. Then: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Woohoo!!

On a side note, Jen and I actually saw two movies today; earlier in the afternoon, we watched the Olsen twins’ New York Minute with Jen’s 8-year-old cousin, Caitlin. Although the plot was, of course, absurd and predictable, nevertheless I actually found the movie quite enjoyable. (Then again, I usually like movies set in New York.) I’m not saying it’s good, but it’s fun.

I was cleaning up a bit in my room, looking for some stuff, when I came across my high-school yearbook. So I looked up Chris Kotch’s senior quote:

“I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees.” –Franklin Roosevelt

Presuming, as I think we probably can, that he died doing something that he loved (riding his motorcycle) — and also given that, as a soldier, he certainly lived on his feet — it strikes me as rather poignant.

Wow!! What a race by Smarty Jones! With an incredible final kick, the “people’s horse” won the Preakness — which was close until the final turn — by 11 1/2 lengths, the largest margin in the race’s history! (The previous record, 10 lengths, was set in 1873.)

The sight of Smarty winning by an overwhelming margin, with no other horses in sight, was reminiscent of the famous video clip showing Secretariat running away with the Belmont, “moving like a tremendous machine” en route to a 31-length victory. (He only won the Preakness by 2 1/2 lengths, though!) Of course, there’s no comparison between Smarty Jones and Secretariat, but still, Smarty’s win was quite a sight to see.

Anyway, heeeere we go again. Five of the last seven years, a horse has won the first two legs of Triple Crown, then lost the Belmont. (See: Silver Charm, Real Quiet, Charismatic, War Emblem and Funny Cide.) As a result, the Triple Crown drought has reached record-breaking proportions: it’s been 26 years since Affirmed pulled off horse racing’s last hat trick.

Can Smarty break the jinx and stay undefeated? We’ll find out in three weeks…