The Year That It Was (On Here): 2006

January

• The late, lamented QTN featured Reichen Lehmkuhl giving relationship advice with no trace of irony whatsoever.
• Christine Quinn is selected Council Speaker for New York City.
• Ralph Ellison was right, part 1.
• That damn building going up next to me starts off with a crane situation that would make nearly anybody nervous.
• Gene Shalit's milquetoast apology for his Brokeback Mountain review.
• Hardcore photo shoots and Viagra? Kind of boring.
• SVT's choice to not provide webcast this year leads to unexpected recaps of the Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix and the bizarre pair that is Syn & Sti.
• Ralph Ellison was right, part 2.
• NBC, I give you all this advice and yet, you still don't listen closely.
• Paul Martin gets his slap in the face, but unfortunately that means dealing with inanity that is Stephen Harper.
• RTVSLO? I'll forget EMA 2006 if you will too.

February

• I was bound to wake up like this one day. I just knew it.
• QTN starts its rapid slide into receivership.
• NBC still doesn't get it, and goes for the jugular.
• The Norsk MGP ends with a decent result.
• My birthday resolution? Two out of Eight, isn't bad.
• My attempt to sex up the image of playwrights starts well, but just gets a bronze in the end.
• They don't do Dansk MGPs the way they used to.
• The moral of 2006? It doesn't matter if you are rich, as long as you look rich.
• DC? Beautiful subway system. Kind of cold metaphorically and atmospherically.
• Narcissism is its own sexual orientation.
• Four questions that will probably never be answered.
• Fox will never get it, and why does anyone bother to correct them?

March

• Idiot divorce lawyer from New Berlin decides to turn Wisconsin into Bigotry Land ...and unfortunately succeeds.
• Slut Wins Dora 2006!
• Cruises can be journeys of self-loathing at work, cheap cigarette carton buying, ethical exploration, borscht belt humour, all leading up to 3 days straight out of 9 1/2 Weeks.
• 500 Posts! (Thank you, Esteban!)
• Eurovision 2006 participants? They're freaky!
• Mortality in Milwaukee.

April

• Why I shave my head.
• Steroids and guns get clubs in Chelsea shut down.
• German emigres don't get it.
• Evil building site steals the sun from my heart!
• Masturbating without porn or erotic literature? Not for me.
• When is sushi more than just sushi?

May

• Quotes. Lots of quotes.
• My vote for Post-Mortem of 2006 (and Ralph Ellison was right, part 3).
• La Ryan goes on killing spree throughout Athens or the Eurovision 2006 Qualifier. Take your pick.
• As an American, I apologise to Euroland for Grace clogging up your television screens for 3 hours. Just remember, we have to deal with her on a daily basis.
• Eulogy for QTN.
• Our idiot closet-case mayor tries to have it both ways.

June

• The La Ryan vs. Sibel vs. Severina debate continues...if only in my mind.
• Even innocent words can become slurs, and anyone with a brain and an ounce of morals knows it.
• Let's be blunt. The Tonys sucked.
• The Manifesto for Pride 2006.
• Fuddle Duddle, or why can't American politics be this funny?
• Yes, Virginia, this is the main gay newspaper of New York.

July

• The difference between independence and interdependence.
• They can get married and I can't?
• Phillip Michael Thomas can SING!
• Idiot from New Berlin is a callous bigot, part 2.
• Protect Marriage. Ban Divorce.

August

• Stop calling it HD when it isn't.
• This is the Fringe festival? More like the frayed.
• Fun with Canadian closet cases in Chicago.
• I think Morning Blend is going to be bad, and it is.
• New York local television loses one gay anchor and gains another one.
• Gay Milwaukee is invaded by the pod people.
• Chicago is even more fun without a Canadian Closet Case.
• I am not here to make you feel better, or Ralph Ellison was right part 4.
• Cruising through "happy poor people land."

September

• Dionne Warwick sings the anthem of Summer 2006.
• Luther and rewriting.
• To no one's surprise, 10% of straight men aren't straight...They're cowards.
• Sunday Morning is good...as long as you ignore Charles Osgood.
• Good Morning America: You'd think with this lineup, it'd be better.
• The Early Show: Sponsored by Unisom.
• Today: All I wanna know is how on Earth could Natalie Morales inspire such rabid fandom?
• The CW11 Morning News: Yes, we're even more boring than The Early Show!
• Good Day New York: The most gay [note: superlative here] morning show on the planet since QTN went off the air.

October

• Wisconsin's schizophrenic nature in a picture.
• A majority says the recent revival of A Chorus Line is insipid, and we're still right.
• The downside of New York? Bad gay theatre everywhere you turn.
• T.R. Knight comes out, shortly followed by Neil Patrick Harris, but no one dares come out from the leads of CSI.
• Save Deaf Theatre.
• No one cares about space anymore, not even anime science fiction shows set in space.
• The Story, The Person is born.
• The Closet returns. "(SLAP) Don't say shit to me!"
• Mike Nichols delivers the perfect North Shore smackdown to the pro-amendment block.

November

• Ralph Ellison was right, part 5.
• Vote or shut up. Fortunately, a lot of people did the former.
• My idiot home county and the paranoid retrogressive geriatrics who run it.
• Yes, there was a big sliver lining nationally, but the results from Wisconsin make me see just one big cloud.
• Boundaries & Tact? They're dead.
• Adventures in the American Healthcare System.
• Batshit crazy retired weatherman is my new state assemblyman. Is this penance for my Mike Woods jokes?
• Sarah Schulman tells it like it is. Preach on!
• The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade 2006: Only just beating out Aiden Shaw for most referrals. By the way, people get really defensive when you criticise their bland anonymous ballads.
• Why are all the men in New York smelling like Baby Powder?

December

• NBC began its slide downwards much earlier than we thought. Michael Landon "dancing?"
• I say sin all you want. It's all relative unless you hurt someone else.
• Rupert Murdoch launders his money in bad television. The rest of us just use Wisk.
• The Hudson Affair: Gay Yellow Journalism at its worst.
• Redefining invisibility, or Ralph Ellison was right part 6.
• The Finns melodically tell us that modern life sucks.
• I win Dreamgirls tickets and get pickpocketed. Balance is restored.
• Merger Fever: We'll all get it in the end, but honestly, I say just nationalise the lot.
• I told you Morning Blend was bad.
• Renato Zero refuses to walk quietly into that dark night, and teaches us all a lesson.

Moral of 2006: Ralph Ellison was right.