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My Profile
Because I can't bear to eulogize Doug - 2008-08-19
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7:58 a.m. - 2008-07-17
On becoming ho-hum. I am taller than my man. By three inches, to be precise, but as I have a neck and he doesn't even without the lofty heels I am so fond of the difference in our altitudes seems more marked because my cranium is atop a stalk whereas Mick's head is plunked down directly on top of those bullish barn beams he calls shoulders. No biggie, really. The Daily News won't run a headline: 'Gantry weds Fireplug', but despite famous short dead dudes like Napoleon and Dudley Moore and their towering brides, the accepted ratio is for the man to be taller than the woman. Or rather it used to be the way it was supposed to be. To film the nightclub scene in Casablanca 5'7" Humphrey Bogart wore blocks tied to his shoes so 5'10" Ingrid Bergman could look like a proper girl and lay her head on his shoulder as they danced the night away in Paris. Nowadays besides couples not dancing cheek-to-cheek in elegant supper clubs anymore, I doubt a director would bother to go through such contortions to give Bogie the height advantage. She's taller? So what, who cares? In 1991 director Spike Lee made the satiric Jungle Fever. While certainly a commentary about race, especially the 'dreaded' black man/white woman combo, the film's real controversy lay in its views on fidelity, blue vs. white collar, and the lopsided power struggle of a male boss and a female secretary who become sexually involved. The film came and went. Some folks talked about it, some didn't, but certainly there was no modern-day George Wallace standing in the multi-plex's doorway to stop people from seeing Wesley Snipes lay a big wet one on Annabella Sciorra. Why bring this up? Because in this morning's NYT columnist Gail Collins wrote about Massachusetts dumping the 1913 law preventing out-of-state folk from marrying there if such a marriage was illegal in their home state. Enacted back in the day to stop inter-racial couples from marrying (MA always being the hotbed of liberty had no such prohibitions on 'miscegenation') that outdated bit of bigotry had been revived to prevent out-of-state gay couples from tying the knot in the Commonwealth. Fiscal prudence (along with some basic decency) has won out over prejudice and the Bay State is opening its borders and its wedding venues to everyone. Florists and catering hall owners are doing a very happy Electric Slide over this new-found source of revenue. Couples who have no legal rights at home will be quite happy to come to MA to do the deed and order up chicken cordon bleu for 150 guests. Win-win all around. (Except, of course, for those still denied rights accorded to those citizens who are 'more equal than others' in their home states.) Ms Collins spoke as well on the rising normalcy of same-sex marriages. She said in part: 'After four years, same-sex marriage has also begun to feel normal in Massachusetts. It’s not something that comes up in conversation much anymore. There is no greater force against bigotry than the moment when something becomes so routine that you stop noticing it.' Right on, Gail. As no one bats an eye over a groom who comes up to the bride's chin or the hue of their skin, I can hope for and believe the day is coming fast when the gender of the happy couple is similarly ho-hum and there are no more hysteric Wallaces at the wedding chapel door.
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