In which The Gay Recluse ponders a sampling of recent search terms used to find the very pages you are now reading. Note: All search terms listed are in the exact form provided by WordPress.com, which is the host (at least for a while) of this blog. Hyperlinks to relevant posts included.
Search: students ’shallow and [...]

In which The Gay Recluse takes a field trip to Harlem and makes the case that the city should rezone the shit out of 125th Street.
Lately there has been a lot of press — from Curbed, The Times and others — about the city’s proposal to rezone 125th Street in Harlem. Much of this unfortunately [...]

In which The Gay Recluse scores selected opinion pieces in The Times.
David Brooks/Remembering the Mentor
The Short Version: Even though he was a Nazi, I loved William F. Buckley.
In her words: “Buckley was not only a giant celebrity, he lived in a manner of the haut monde.”
Score: F (Foolish)
In this column we have Brooks longing for [...]

In which The Gay Recluse contemplates an uncommissioned masterpiece from the walls of an uptown subway station.

In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with The George Washington Bridge.
Time and Date of photograph: February 28, 2008, 7:56am.
Notes: The sky is starting to seem spring-like, but it was actually close to minus-fifty.

“It was to be encased in granite but because of the Depression was never done and the structure remained as it [...]

In which The Gay Recluse contemplates an uncommissioned masterpiece from the walls of an uptown subway station.

In which The Gay Recluse reports on real estate in Washington Heights.
A few weeks ago we reported on three vacant lots, two of which seem to be owned by a church and a third by a doctor’s office.

Today, in response to reader e-mails, we thought we’d update you on the latest, which is that the [...]

In which The Gay Recluse scores selected opinion pieces in The Times.
Gail Collins/Hillary, Buckeye Girl
The Short Version: Hillary can’t compete against Barack’s charm. (This may help her in Ohio.)
In her words: “If Hillary is stumbling, it may be because there just isn’t any good path to take. ”
Score: B (Benign)
This column pleasantly meanders through the [...]

In which The Gay Recluse wonders if Deborah Solomon thinks we’re impressed. (Because we’re not.)
Usually we skip Deborah Solomon’s weekly interview in the Sunday Magazine, in which the notoriously harsh and arrogant New York Times critic tersely interrogates a publicity hound hawking a useless book about the latest nonsense du jour. But this week we [...]

In which The Gay Recluse considers a broken traffic light in Washington Heights.
Glancing up, we were momentarily confused; what had once been familiar and comfortable seemed unclear and possibly dangerous. (Of course we took a photograph.) Is this not the story of your life, too?

In which The Gay Recluse scores selected opinion pieces in The Times.
Maureen Dowd/Begrudging His Bedazzling
The Short Version: Hillary doesn’t “get” Barack. (God how I hate her!)
In his words: “After saying she found her ‘voice’ in New Hampshire, she has turned into Sybil.”
Score: D+ (Dated)
Dowd delivers a few amusing lines in this column (the above is [...]

In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with The George Washington Bridge.
Time and Date of photograph: February 26, 2008, 7:56am.
Notes: The morning light — not unlike our mood — is not so much blue as tinged with blue.

“The George Washington Bridge over the Hudson is the most beautiful bridge in the world. Made of [...]

In which The Gay Recluse scores selected opinion pieces in The Times.
Bob Herbert/A Driving Force
The Short Version: Ralph Nader shouldn’t be running for anything.
In his words: “I could go on for a few more days, but you get the idea.”
Score: D- (Dated)
Ralph Nader shouldn’t run for president because Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Next!
David Brooks/The Real McCain
The Short [...]

In which The Gay Recluse would like to think “outside the box.”
Heating bills keep getting higher and higher, and despite global warming, there are days when it’s still very, very cold. Freezing air rushes through open windows, and we wonder: what can we possibly do about it? Any complex problem would seem to require [...]

In which The Gay Recluse ponders two photographs of an immense white brick wall and doesn’t regret taking drugs.
Photograph 1: Here we see one photograph of an immense white brick wall. Like 90 percent of the architecture in Washington Heights, it is thousands of years old and on the verge of collapse. Note how [...]

William Kristol/It’s All About Him
The Short Version: I hate Obama because he won’t wear a flag pin on his lapel. (McCain is my hero.)
In his words: “Obama’s unnecessary and imprudent statement impugns the sincerity or intelligence of those vulgar sorts who still choose to wear a flag pin.”
Score: F (Farcical)
Check it out: The rightwing shitstorm [...]

In which The Gay Recluse ponders a photograph of the George Washington Bridge and provides an interesting (and possibly depressing) fact.
Date of photograph: February 24, 2008
Notes: We were rushing out to buy donuts and didn’t notice the reflection of the window to the right. (Oh well.)

Interesting (and Possibly Depressing) Fact: The George Washington Bridge opened [...]

In which The Gay Recluse scores selected opinion pieces in The Times.
Frank Rich/The Audacity of Hopelessness
The Short Version: Goodbye, Hillary.
In his words: “The Obama campaign is not a vaporous cult; it’s a lean and mean political machine that gets the job done.”
Score: B- (Bit much)
Rich gives us some interesting facts to chew on here with [...]

In which The Gay Recluse scores selected opinion pieces in The Times.
Bob Herbert/Hillary on the High Road
The Short Version: Goodbye, Hillary.
In his words: “Their campaign theme song was Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop,” with the crucial lyric, ‘Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow.’”
Score: F (Fatigued)
We don’t disagree with Herbert, but as the above quote (hilariously?) demonstrates, his [...]

In which The Gay Recluse updates his informal but rather telling quantitative analysis of Modern Love, the weekly Style Section (of The Times) column in which openly gay writers almost never appear, and even less frequently describe a romantic relationship.
This week’s piece: An April Fools’ Joke I Played on Myself
Subject: A frat boy [...]