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My First Hispanic Guy
Rock Island, November 1977I began taking Spanish in fifth grade, and by high school I was relatively fluent. During my senior year at Rocky High, I took AP Spanish with Mr. Blomberg, who assigned the...
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F is for Family: Gay Characters and Beefcake circa 1974
Comedian Bill Burr specializes in "the absurdity of political correctness," which usually means "the absurdity of not telling homophobic jokes," but I don't find his bits at all homophobic. Gross...
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The Oddly Named Towns of Amish Country
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania is known for the Old Order Amish, aka the Pennsylvania Dutch, the German Mennonite sect that forbids of such non-Biblical technology as zippers and automobiles....
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Gilligan's Island
Gilligan's Island (1964-67), the tale of seven nitwits who set out from Honolulu for a “three hour tour” and end up stranded on a desert island is famous for its ineptness and naiveté, but actually it...
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Sick Note: Gay Subtexts in the Most Unpleasant Sitcom on TV
Daniel Glass (Rupert Grint, left) is having a bad day. His girlfriend has kicked him out, his boss is planning to fire him, and to add to his woes, he's diagnosed with cancer.Suddenly everyone starts...
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That Girl: Will and Grace for the 1960s
Why did That Girl (1966-71) made my childhood list of tv programs “good beyond hope"? The tale of Ann Marie (Marlo Thomas), madcap wannabe actress on the loose in a bright, effervescent New York City,...
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The Powerlifter of New Hamburg
This teen won a gold medal in the World Powerlifting Congress in 2016. Naturally I had to research his home town to see if muscles were commonplace.New Hamburg, population 7,900, is about two hours...
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Children of Eden: A Beefcake-Free Adam and Eve
The musical Children of Eden is not the beefcake-fest you might imagine, with a retelling of the story of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and Noah. 1. The actor playing Adam is rarely nude. He wears...
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A Dream Weekend in Kearney, Nebraska
"I want you to come to Kearney, Nebraska on December 1st for the Varsity KHS Invite."I don't know what that is, but I might take him up on the offer if:1. He shaves off that stupid moustache.2. The...
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The Beefcake of My Cousin's Cousin's Home Town
I have to fly to South Carolina for a funeral, and my mother wants me to look up some sort of distant non-relative, the son of my cousin George's cousin on his mother's side. I checked him out on...
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My Surprising Post-Gay Halloween in Charleston, South Carolina
Remember my distant non-cousin Trevor from Monck's Corner, South Carolina, who my mother was pressuring me into visiting? Turns out that I didn't need to visit him. He came to my Uncle George's...
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10 Gay Things You Didn't Know about "White Christmas"
1. White Christmas is not about Christmas. It's a backstage musical that just happens to end at Christmastime. Backstage movies were well-known for gay subtexts.2. The songs are by Irving Berlin, who...
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Snakes on a Plane: Not Enough Buddy Bonding
Yes, I've seen Snakes on a Plane (2006), the heavily hyped, endlessly joked about vehicle for Samuel L. Jackson to say "I have had it with these m___f___ snakes on this m___f___ plane!" Can't argue...
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The Strangest Little Schools in Iowa
I thought Florida had a monopoly for oddly-named high schools, but Iowa is a close second.1. Denver-High School in Denver, near Cedar Rapids. Named after the city in Colorado for no apparent reason.2....
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White Water Summer/Stand By Me
Although panned by the critics and ignored by most heterosexuals, White Water Summer (1987) became a hit among gay kids and teenagers, maybe for the same reasons that they ignored the critically...
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Which of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was Gay?
I'll bet you never thought you'd be reading about the ancient Greek drama Alcestisand The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the same blog, on the same day. But my search for beefcake and bonding takes...
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Home Town Beefcake, Part 1: The Illinois Side
When I was growing up in the Quad Cities, I didn't think of it as a beefcake paradise. I rarely went to a sports match. I saw hunks in the locker room, of course, but it was always clandestine, a...
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Steve Burton: Out of This World
During the 1960s, there was a fad of tv programs about adults who were "different" and had to keep their secret lives hidden from the world. During the 1980s, there was a fad of tv programs about...
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Home Town Beefcake #2: The Iowa Side
The Quad Cities is the cluster of four major cities and dozens of towns and villages on the Mississippi River between Illinois and Iowa. I grew up in Rock Island on the Illinois side, and didn't have...
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Why Orangeburg?
Manish Dayal, the Indian-American actor who has appeared in White Frog, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., 90210, and The Resident, was born in Orangeburg, South Carolina in 1983.So, when his parents or...
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