In which The Gay Recluse takes a trip to the suburbs.
Last weekend we went flower shopping and on the way back stopped into a brand new Home Depot that was recently built somewhere in Westchester, which is this large land mass north of New York City; sometimes desolate and sometimes beautiful, it is criss-crossed with [...]

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

Consider the old panels on the subway platform wall, and observe the finely wrought precision with which each strip of peeling paint has by the hands of time been distressed in the subtlest shades of gold and silver, all [...]

In which The Gay Recluse reports on monthly traffic whoring metrix to the Board of Directors.
I. Summary
After a record month of whoring in March, we experienced a slight dip in April. But! It was still our second best month on record.
II. Traffic Whoring Metrix
WordPress
Total Views March: 13,957
Grand Total Number of Views: 48,973
Monthly Breakdown

[...]

In which The Gay Recluse holds a contest. Sort of.
Today we received two unofficial entries for the contest, “unofficial” because 1) the first statue is in Europe and we are primarily interested in locating the hottest gay statues in the U.S., and 2) the second statue doesn’t exist except in someone’s photoshopallucination! Yet we still [...]

In which The Gay Recluse rather quickly gets lung cancer.
Date of Photographs: April 18, 2008

We’ve noticed that almost every chimney in Washington Heights is spewing thick, black smoke these days.

It’s definitely a lot worse than it’s ever been, which leads us to ask: Does it have anything to do with the rising cost of [...]

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 imagines a life more exciting than his own.
Our newest correspondent — Deirdre’s Terrain — sends in pix of her desk at work, which she labeled only half-ironically as “CUBE Party!” along with the following report:
Look @ my cube

This is the view from where Deirdre sits. (Note the television!)

Here’s the [...]

In which The Gay Recluse makes a monthly report on traffic whoring to the Board of Directors.
I. Summary
A combination of organic growth, traffic whoring and links from Curbed, Gothamist, Towleroad, Slog and others contributed to record numbers of visitors and page views in March.
II. Traffic Whoring Metrix
WordPress
Total Views March: 15,033
Grand Total Number of Views: [...]

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: How We Got from Grief to Pancakes
Subject: A woman finds a new [...]

In which The Gay Recluse provides a gay alternative to this week’s Modern Love offering in The Times. Those looking for our quantitative analysis should click here.
How We Got From Grief to Pancakes
By PATTY DANN and THE GAY RECLUSE
Published: March 30, 2008
I WAS nervous about meeting my new partner’s parents, even though — omg! [...]

In which the Gay Recluse holds a contest. Sort of.
Although this is not an official submission, we felt it was imperative to share a comment from reader GenghisKuhn in response to Seth Tisue’s entry from Philadelphia (shown below).

Genghis writes:
What makes this even funnier is that it looks like the J-Man might be involved, reminiscent of [...]

In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with The George Washington Bridge.
Time and Date of morning photograph: March 21, 2008, 5:15pm-ish.
Notes: This is the view of the George Washington Bridge from the north, in the remotest and most abandoned part of Manhattan. We see the pilings of an old pier and — most [...]

In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with The George Washington Bridge.
Time and date of photograph: March 21, 2008, 7:54am.
Notes: The blue sky, almost completely windswept.

“I, too am obsessed with the George Washington Bridge, and have been ever since as stoned youths me and my friends cavorted in the park on the New Jersey [...]

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 becomes increasingly obsessed with The George Washington Bridge.
Time and Date of photograph: March 13, 2008, 7:38am.
Notes: The cloud bank this morning looked like a mountain range.

“The George Washington Bridge over the Hudson is the most beautiful bridge in the world. Made of cables and steel beams, it gleams in the [...]

In which The Gay Recluse photographs birds.

Some days we want to photograph the George Washington Bridge. Today we went for the seagulls.

In which The Gay Recluse shares a fresh expression used by an older relative new to the internet.
“I’m dead! That’s funny!”

In which The Gay Recluse sponsors a competition. Sort of.
After our recent post about the smokin’ hot statuary on Audubon Terrace in Washington Heights, a reader wrote to ask if we were aware of other such collections, particularly in the United States, where — in case you haven’t noticed — the puritanical impulse runs pretty [...]

In which The Gay Recluse makes a monthly report to the Board of Directors.
I. Summary
February was an outstanding month for The Gay Recluse. A combination of organic growth, continued linkage from Curbed and Queerty and several new links from Gawker all contributed to record numbers of visitors and page views.
II. Traffic Metrix
WordPress
Total Views February: 6545
Grand [...]

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: Me, My Daughter and Them
Subject: A lawyer who sounds seriously bitchy [...]