Tuesday, August 21, 2007

you know you are in a gay resort town when...

I wanted to have a magazine so I would have something to read on the ferry ride back from Provincetown to Boston. I went into the store that said it was Provincetown's Largest Newsstand. I would have preferred to buy, perhaps in order, The Economist, The Atlantic, or Harper's. The store had none of these, but it did have an entire rack of gay porn magazines and an entire rack of nongay porn magazines (granted, GQ, which isn't specifically gay, and Details, which as far as I know is still a strange kind of closeted gay*, were on this rack as well).

As we figured out when we arrived at the Pilgrim Monument in Provincetown, yesterday just happened to be the 100th anniversary of the laying of the original cornerstone by Teddy Roosevelt at this monument, and so Provincetown was having a special celebration. So, there was a parade. The parade was comprised mostly of Freemasons, and thus the day combined a disproportionate number of male couples walking around with a disproportionate number of men-in-fezzes.

I am neither gay nor a Freemason. Having this instance to observe them both side-by-side, however, gay culture makes a lot more sense to me than Freemason culture. I think whatever goes on behind the closed doors of Freemason temples must be either wilder than anything I can imagine or more boring than anything I can imagine; there can be no in-between.

Back in Boston, we went back and forth trying to find the Boston Massacre site before being informed by a street vendor that it was just this circle of cobblestones in a little triangular intersection, without any explicit plaque marking it as such. Our photo, there:

boston massacre site

We also had dinner last night at Cheers; by this point, everybody there really does know our names.

* When it was a Conde Nast publication, Details fabricated reader's poll data to downplay its percentage of gay readers.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Typical day in Ptown. Sorry you didn't get to see the Cape (but surely you knew where you were going, so hope you enjoyed the sights).

Anonymous said...

Gay? Not gay? Who cares? But either way, hard to believe you were surprised by the reading matter -- with that sign -- on that street. Oh well...

Anonymous said...

Not gay? Oh, I just hope Sal doesn't read it here first...

(Now don't delete me; I'm kidding!!)

And your younger sisters both look fab-u-lous! Say hi to Norm and Cliff from us!! I hope you get a t-shirt to help replace your discarded collection.

jeremy said...

Good to see you are still reading my blog, Beavis.

Anonymous said...

heh,heh,heh...he said BEAVIS...

Jamy said...

Last year, I went on a tour of freemason HQ here in DC. Pretty weird and interesting. They decorate the place with a lavish mishmash of Greek, Latin and Hieroglyphic symbols. Very fancy.

Anonymous said...

(nice hair job)

Anonymous said...

Doesn't Details have a regular feature called gay or _____. They compare the stylistic trends of a certain culture with those in the gay culture. Like, gay or emo band member. I think that is one I remember.

Brock20

Greg Stewart said...

"I think whatever goes on behind the closed doors of Freemason temples must be either wilder than anything I can imagine or more boring than anything I can imagine; there can be no in-between."

It actually is pretty much right in the middle there. Sometimes really wild, sometimes as boring as salt.

Anonymous said...

"The store had none of these, but it did have..."

So, was it Mandate again?