at least I’m writing somewhere

“Doll face, have you ever watched the television show Nip/Tuck?” It’s always somewhat awesome to be addressed as “doll face,” but it’s the apex of awesome when the person referring to you in such a way is your eighty-six year-old grandmother, asking you if you watch one of the goriest, most depraved shows on television. And she even took a little catch breath between the word “nip” and the word “tuck.”

“Grandma,” I told her. “You love that show so much you even pronounced the slash.”

I haven’t seen an episode of NipSlashTuck since its first season, but its demographic reach is clearly impressive. Prior to this discussion, the only television-oriented chat I’d ever had with my grandmother is when she tells me not to come over during General Hospital. Which, by the way, she still refers to as her “stories.” All of which is why Grandma Mimi was awfully pleased to get her hands on a copy of the September 26th issue of The Advocate, featuring cover-gay-sex-symbol Julian McMahon. And what business would an eighty-six year-old woman with zero proclivity for same-sex dealings (I swear, you guys: Dorothy is JUST her best friend and NOTHING MORE) have with The Advocate in the first place? The fact that I started writing for it in September certainly helps.

The print edition of that issue contained my first article, entitled “Closet Cases.” It ran only in print and not on the website, but here’s the synopsis: many gay characters on the fall TV schedule are closeted…weird! The article also contained an enormous photo of Jim Rash, and I now believe that many readers thought that that was a picture of me, even though I am not at all bald and I have only very rarely appeared on television. Since then, I’ve written about such probing issues as the totally not cliché topic of Judy Garland and the upcoming season of The Real World (spoiler alert…there’s a gay!).

Which brings us to my latest article: a brief commentary on the strike at America’s Next Top Model, a labor action that left me quite exhausted and temporarily quite tan. As close friends and loved ones will tell you, I have been extremely reticent to talk about the strike. I had a very long and very difficult summer. I lost a job I loved and hurt some friendships that might never be the same. I stand by what we did as an extremely important move for the industry overall, but blazing a trail and reaping the rewards are, clearly, two very different things.

So read the article. Tell me your thoughts. Get me a damn job. And while I don’t know if my grandmother ever did read my first article, at least there’s proof that she read the one about her favorite show.

And here is that proof:

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And next Monday she turns eighty-seven. Rock on, grandma.

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