Sherry Chandler

Mardi Gras is, I hope, making a return in New Orleans but it was Carnival in Rio that did in Orson Welles, as Todd Swift reminds us:

Greeted with complete adulation by the people and government of Brazil, he soon plunged into a lifestyle of promiscuous sexuality, partying until dawn with a beautiful new lover each night, plucked from the Carnival erupting in and around the film set, overwhelmed by trying to find a narrative amid the musical and sexual chaos.

Bible-belter me, I am so tone deaf to Lent that I found myself wondering why I kept seeing people wearing colorful beads in the halls today.

Well, actually, I continue to wonder that. Lexington, Kentucky doesn’t do Lupercalia or Shrove Tuesday. We do mint and bourbon on the first Saturday in May. Otherwise, it’s all Cotton Mather all the time here.

Check out The Human Flower project for a quick tour of Carnival celebrations around the world, including Quebec:

Quebec actually holds its carnaval before Fat Tuesday (Being February, bien sur, what difference does a week make weatherwise in Eastern Canada?) For jollies, the Quebebecois this year enjoyed horse-drawn sleigh rides, snow sculpting, and “snow baths.” Take that, and shiver your glitter, Rio!

Poet Andrea O’Brien has established her web presence. Be sure to read the sample poems. You will be impressed.

Also new on the web, New Madrid, the official publication of the MFA program at Murray State University. It is up and running — in beta version anyway — and distinguished by my son’s name on the masthead — though that will change as students rotate through the program.

Those vulgar women at Pandagon continue to fight the good fight. Yesterday, they pointed out that the Kentucky Senate is considering a bill to deny health benefits to domestic partners.

The Bluegrass State already has a state constitutional amendment banning gays and lesbians from marrying. It’s not enough for the agents of intolerance out there who are so desperate to protect the sanctity of their unions from the advancing homosexualist mob, they feel compelled to take action against any meager advances in civil rights.

The fact is that they want gay folks to have no rights at all, even partner health benefits at state universities and colleges (even if the partner pays 100% of the premium!). A measure to ban the benefit has passed in committee in the Kentucky Senate and moves to a floor vote. A similar bill is in the House.

This Senate bill (SB 152) was launched as a response to the University of Louisville’s decision to offer partner health benefits, which would have made it the first public instution in the state to do so.

The University of Kentucky and Northern Kentucky University have also been considering offering benefits to domestic partners.

Here is the text of the bill and its vote history.

Although the Senate in Kentucky is dominated by Republicans while Democrats hold the House, I’d say this bill is destined to pass.

H/T to I See Invisible People.