Something Old, Something New

November 24, 2001-Friends and Schoolies

The son of friends is here with his wife. They called & left a voice message for us including the phone number of their hotel & room number. I called the hotel & asked to be connected to the room giving the number. The operator asked for the name of the guest & when I told her she said no one by that name was registered. She wasn’t going to connect me. I then realized they may have been registered under the wife's name, but I didn’t know her surname. I told the operator my plight & mentioned the wife's first name. That seemed to do the trick. I was then connected to their voice mail. After being virtually in touch with each other, we finally made contact. We were able to meet them after services for a drink & hope to see them again. They’re doing all the “touristy” things & hope to get close up to koalas, kangaroo, & platypus (platypi?) today. They’ve booked a trip to the Reef as well. He was adventurous enough to eat Moreton Bay bugs his first night in town. They’re tiny crustacean like a mini crayfish from Moreton Bay on the east coast of Australia north of Brisbane.

The security at the hotel seemed extreme & I’m sure it’s not about terrorism. This is “schoolies” time here. It’s spring break in the States multiplied by 6. It lasts at least 6 weeks & is attended by year 12 students. That’s equivalent to our high school seniors. This is the end of their school year. They go according to the calendar year & follow the seasons. This is their summer vacation since it’s now summer here. Tens of thousands (the paper said 70,000) of them descend on Gold Coast & are kept under control by police & the hospitality industry. They’re strict about alcoholic consumption (drinking age is 18) & piling more into a room than have paid. They’ve been known to send kids home for cramming 8 into a room for 4.

I opened the Gold Coast Bulletin this morning & my eyes were drawn to an article headlined, “Gay Insert Confusion.” The University of Akron was mentioned in the first paragraph, so I read on. In the second paragraph I saw the name, “Thomas Dukes” & I became intrigued. Tom is a client of mine who teaches English at Akron U. It seems that he assigned Barbara Pym’s 1952 novel, Excellent Women, to his class. Bound into it was an insert from Christian McLaughlin’s 1998 novel Sex Toys of the Gods. Pyms book deals with respectable spinsters in post WWII London. McLaughlin’s book tells the story of a gay Ohioan in Hollywood. Tom was quoted as saying, “It would be like finding a love scene in the New Testament.” I loved his quote & sent him the article. I also wrote a note telling him that while the New Testament isn’t too sexy that Old one reads like Peyton Place. It seems it was a print shop or bindery error & hadn’t been reported before. At least we know that Tom’s students read the assigned book.

November 25, 2001-Flicks & Fuzz

We went to see The Man Who Sued God last night with the Bruces. We all enjoyed it & Billy Connoley was a riot. Even though it was made in Australia, I’m sure it has been in the U.S. & will soon be seen on the airlines. As far as Harry Potter goes, it opens here in December. We can’t wait to see it. There have been articles about the religious right picketing it in the U.S. It’s great publicity.

Friday night, David gave a sermon/report on what transpired at the meetings in Adelaide. He talked about the patrilineal descent issue & the probability that a resolution will be passed to give rabbis the option to perform same sex commitment ceremonies. He said that the rabbis would study the issue of sexuality & that he & they would proceed to educate the congregations on the issue. He presented it all in a positive light as if it was going to be a “fait a complit.” No one has said anything to him one way or the other about it.

There was a bagel brunch this morning at the temple. I guess it was brunch, but there was nary a bagel in sight. They used some kind of huge round roll with a hole in the middle. At least they had real lox they call smoked salmon. They only call it “lox” in Melbourne.

The temple car park has become a temporary animal shelter. A car appeared on Friday night & no one knows who owns it. People thought it belonged to someone at services. The same was thought on Saturday. Police were called today & we discovered that a pit bull was its sole occupant. The window is cracked enough, it’s parked under a tree, there’s a bowl of water on the seat, & the dog looks well fed. She didn’t fuss much while we all peered in. There was no odor or evidence that the dog hadn’t been walked recently. The police ran the plates & the car isn’t registered. They didn’t want to call the RSPCA (our ASPCA) since the dog looked ok, & they only were interested in the car if it moved from a private lot onto a public street. Now, I feel compelled to check on the dog daily until the owner moves the car or is located. I’d hate to have the dog taken to the RSPCA if it truly is someone’s well cared for pet. I have the feeling that the car might belong to a homeless person & the dog is special to him or her.

Toby