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Catholic Prep Schools #2: Otherworldly Contemplation or Beefcake?
I grew up with paradoxical stereotypes of Roman Catholics: dark, brooding, mysterious, sexually dangerous, yet mystical, spiritual, otherworldly. So I've been going through the top Catholic schools in...
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The First Teen Idols, 1956-1963
Before 1955, most teens appropriated their music from Mom and Dad, who listened mostly to silky-voiced crooners like Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra. Then rock and roll exploded onto the musical scene...
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A Gay Teen on the Disney Channel
Andi Mack is a Disney Channel teencom with an unusual premise: 13-year old Andi discovers that Bex, who she thought of as her older sister, his actually her mother. Celia and Ham, who she thought were...
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Bizaardvark: Bizaare Beefcake
I find it interesting that many of the teencoms broadcast on television today are about post-television media: streaming series, web-based series, video games, various techno-devices that the older...
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The Sonic Drive-In Guys Are Saving a Gay Kid's Life
These are the Two Guys (their internet name) who have been starring in commercials for Sonic Drive-Ins since 2002 (with a few breaks).They are depicted sitting in their car at various times of the day...
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Nanny and the Professor
There are two kinds of servants on tv.1. The world-weary, laconic observer of the lunacy (Hazel, Beulah, Geoffrey on Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Florence on The Jeffersons, Benson on Soap).2. The "breath...
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The 7 Most Horrible DMVs
The DMV is the Department of Motor Vehicles, the most horrifying, soul-destroying institution every invented in the board rooms of hell. Its sole function is to cause you as much pain and torment as...
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Popeye: Finding a Non-Traditional Family
Critics panned the 1980 movie musical Popeye, starring Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall, but I loved it. I loved the world of Sweethaven, a tiny, cramped, desolate seaport, cut off from the rest of...
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The Golden Girls: Homophobic Gay Favorite
When I was livingin West Hollywood, Saturday night meant picking up tangerine chicken to eat on tv trays while watching Throb, Mama's Family and The Golden Girls, then heading out to the bars.The...
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Top 12 Public Penises of Finland
That's right, Finland, the conservative outsider of Scandinavia, somewhat isolated from the usual tourist circuit (but you can fly from London in about 3 hours), cold and cloudy, with a...
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Mark Lester after Oliver
Every kid I knew was forced to see Oliver! in 1968. Our parents had the impression that musicals were somehow educational, and besides, it was Dickens.Most of the kids I knew disliked it. After all,...
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The Only Penis Drawn by Willy Pogany
My first exposure to mythology came from some older books in the Denkmann library: The Adventures of Odysseus, The Children of Odin, and The King of Ireland's Son, all written by Padraic Colum and...
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Journey to the Beginning of Time
During the late 1960s, our local afternoon kid's show, Captain Ernie's Cartoon Showboat, played a serial called Journey to the Beginning of Time, about four boys on a field trip to the Museum of...
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The Top 10 Public Penises of Prague
It's 8 hours by train from Antwerp to Prague, capital of the Czech Republic, but worth it. Prague is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. Try the view from Charles Bridge at night, looking...
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Scott Grimes: a Band of Brothers
For a few years in the mid-1980s, Scott Grimes was as famous as Scott Baio or Matthew Broderick.His red hair and boyish smile drew the interest of teen magazines, and his muscles and penchant for...
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Ninja Kids of the 1990s
One of the legacies of Ralph Macchio'sKarate Kid (1984), and ultimately Bruce Lee's popularization of Chinese martial arts, was a fad of ninja kids. Unfortunately, they almost invariably limited buddy...
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Ansel Elgort: The Post-Gay Carrie Hunk
You may remember Ansel Elgort from the 2013 revision of Stephen King's Carrie: he played Tommy Ross, who takes the repressed schoolgirl with psychic powers to the prom, and gets doused with pig blood....
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Mat Botuchis
Born in 1983, Mat Botuchis got his start in one of the martial-arts -craze vehicles of the 1990s, High Noon at Mega Mountain, where he had to flex his muscles and get a girlfriend (1998). He had the...
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Fall 1977: A Gay Romance on "Barnaby Jones"
October 27, 1977, the cold, windy Thursday night four days before Halloween, during my senior year in high school.The family has gathered in front of the tv set, as usual: the tv is on every night from...
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14 Beefcake Stars of "Don't Trust the B in Apartment 23"
Don't Trust the B in Apartment 23 premiered in April 2012, oddly following the family-friendly Modern Family. After 7 episodes, it was renewed for a second season, but episodes were shown out of...
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