In which The Gay Recluse retires to our garden in Washington Heights.
Date of photograph: April 28, 2008, around 6:30pm

It’s hardly a secret that sometimes the spring garden looks better in the rain.

Today was one of those days…

One of our favorite plants is the creeping yellow groundcover, which we bought a few years ago at [...]

In which The Gay Recluse works in the garden.
Time of Photographs: April 20, 2008, afternoon (ish)

Today, a first in the garden! We heard an opera singer.

She was doing scales in a nearby apartment. Her window was definitely open.

She was loud! And she was struggling to hit her high notes. (She was a mezzo.)

There were [...]

In which The Gay Recluse provides a somewhat more pessimistic alternative to this week’s Modern Love offering in The Times. Those looking for our quantitative analysis should click here.
By TORIE OSBORN and THE GAY RECLUSE
Published: April 20, 2008
GAY marriage was never my issue — until I actually tried it. A little more than four years [...]

In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with The George Washington Bridge.
Time and date of photographs: April 3, 2008, wheneverness.

Work was difficult this week.

It was hard to concentrate.

Life felt very distant.

We wished we could take a nap.

Somehow it never ends.
“I, too am obsessed with the George Washington Bridge, and have been ever since as stoned [...]

In which The Gay Recluse is momentarily disturbed.
Of all the natural vistas we have encountered — desert landscapes, arctic tundra, the badlands — the rooftops of Washington Heights remain one of the most tranquil and undisturbed. Originally carved from the bedrock some 10,000 years ago by the retreating glaciers, the surreal beauty of these structures [...]

In which The Gay Recluse corresponds with Harry, an 80-year-old autistic gay man.
Herewith, for those who asked (and for those who did not):
March 24: It is none my business to know, but! My curiosity is tweaked. Who are you? Have you posted something somewhere to give a more detailed bio? or do I have [...]

In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with The George Washington Bridge.
Time and date of photographs: April 1, 2008, 7:00 - 8:00 pm (ish).

The sunset sky — even this tone of blue — is perhaps not as promising as we’d like to believe. (We think of someone we recently overheard describing her life as [...]

In which The Gay Recluse turns forty.
Today we received the following note from Harry, a reader in Washington Heights:
Subj: YOU
Mess: It is none my business to know, but! My curiosity is tweaked. Who are you? Have you posted something somewhere to give a more detailed bio? or do I have to continue to read between [...]

In which The Gay Recluse holds a contest. Sort of.
Today we present a submission from Seth Tisue, who sends in an entry from the 30th Street Station in Philadelphia.
Let’s check it out, shall we?

Hot or not…? Are you kidding!!? This is seriously gay and smokin’ hot. Nicely done, Philadelphia! You have not been tentative in [...]

In which The Gay Recluse makes a clarification.
Reader Gary Budlong (apparently new to The Gay Recluse) wrote the following comment in response to our most recent “mash-up” of the Modern Love column in The Times.
dear pete, thank you. i’m 61, disabled, retired and gay. my partner has died 5 years ago. knew i was different [...]

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: Mom, It’s Me, Your Son, Finally
Subject: A man in mid-life crisis tries [...]

In which The Gay Recluse rather quickly gets lung cancer.
Time and Date of morning photograph: March 20, 2008, 6:54am.
Notes: One benefit of living in Washington Heights is that it’s truly like the 19th century, not only in the architectural grandeur that splays across the rooftops, but the daily emissions of 100-year-old boilers in apartment [...]

In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with The George Washington Bridge.
Time and Date of morning photograph: March 20, 2008, 6:54am.
Notes: Seriously, don’t these clouds look a little “Poltergeisty”?

Time and Date of evening photograph: March 20, 2008, 6:54pm.
Notes: We appreciate the black smoke, which is so good for our asthma.

“The George Washington Bridge over [...]

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: The Steep Price of Our Forbidden Kiss
Subject: A young woman with cystic [...]

In which The Gay Recluse provides a gay alternative to this week’s Modern Love offering in The Times. (Note: For Kayla’s response, please click here.)
By KAYLA RACHLIN SMALL and THE GAY RECLUSE
THE rules forbade me from being within three feet of her. I knew those rules; she knew them. Sharing a drink meant coming [...]

In which The Gay Recluse scores selected opinion pieces in The Times.
Paul Krugman/Betting the Bank
The Short Version: Economically, we’re fucked.
In his words: “I’m more concerned that despite the extraordinary scale of Mr. Bernanke’s action — to my knowledge, no advanced-country’s central bank has ever exposed itself to this much market risk — the Fed still [...]

In which The Gay Recluse scores selected opinion pieces in The Times.
Gail Collins/Unwelcome Surprises
The Short Version: Who knew?
In her words: “Memo to future disgraced politicians: The nation has discussed this at length, and we do not want to see any more stricken spouses at the press conference. ”
Score: B (Boring)
We generally like Collins — and [...]

In which The Gay Recluse weighs in on a “controversy.”
Obviously, when we endorsed Geraldine Ferraro for president, it was with the expectation that she would hover benovolently in the past and not say unthinking things like: “If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman [...]

In which The Gay Recluse scores selected opinion pieces in The Times.
Bob Herbert/Sharing the Pain
The Short Version: More than ever, it sucks to be poor.
In his words: “It is disgraceful that in a nation as wealthy as the United States, nearly a third of the people are poor or near-poor.”
Score: D- (Depressing)
It’s not that we [...]

In which The Gay Recluse thinks about shit on the daily commute.
As we walk through midtown each morning and each afternoon, we often pause to observe a fading silhouette on a wall; while somewhat decrepit, it provides comforting evidence — of a sort we are always on the lookout for — that Andy Warhol did [...]