November 30

Clueless (just because):

Frat fun:

Sobering thought:

With a side of underwear (black & white):

Ted Osius confirmed as 9th gay U.S. ambassador

From a post by Claude J. Summers:

Career diplomat Ted Osius’s nomination as U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam was confirmed by a voice vote of the U.S. Senate last week. Osius will become the ninth openly gay man to serve as a U.S. ambassador, seven of whom were appointed by President Obama.

Osius entered the Foreign Service with a post to Manila in 1989, followed by assignments to the Vatican and the United Nations. In 1997 he helped set up the U.S. consulate in Ho Chi Minh City. After serving as a senior advisor on international affairs to Vice President Gore from 1998 to 2001, Osius returned to the Foreign Service as regional environmental affairs officer at the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, and in 2004 he became deputy director in the State Department's Office of Korean Affairs in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. That same year Ted met Clayton Bond at a meeting of the State Department glbtq employee group. Ted and Clayton, married in Vancouver, Canada, two years later, have a son.

Read the complete story at:
http://www.glbtq.com/blogs/congratulations_to_ted_osius.html

November 29

Fifty shades of gray:

Art appreciation:
Afro Basaldella - Untitled (1958) 
Italian artist b. 1912 Udine - d. 1976 Zurich

Teacher's pet (just because):

November 28

Revelry at Nasty Boys Saloon, Treviso, Italy
Photographer Cristiano Pinzan (just because):

With a side of towel boys:

Fancy a trip to Portugal?

You might want to plan a trip to Portugal for next June. The place you want to seek out is Amarante, east of Porto (after which port wine is named). These doces fálicos (literally phallic sweets) are sold during the town's Fiesta de São Gonçalo the first week of June, when the medieval town's main plaza is strewn with red flowers. The pastries come in various sizes, the largest being about a yard long. Saint Gonçalo purportedly has the power to find spouses for ageing lovers. During this festival a long procession of single people exchange these pastries as tokens of (hopeful) affection. No lie.



A triple dose of denim: