Guy with Two Penises
Yesterday a friend sent me a link about a man with two penises. At first I thought it was a joke and the photos were shopped. But then I made the social media rounds and by coincidence saw other people talking about it. Evidently, it's a rare syndrome called Diphallia and it can and does happen.
You can read more here.
And here are the links someone posted photos.
http://i.imgur.com/A5IdNU7.jpg
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1u75hh/i_am_the_guy_with_two_penises_ama/
Charlie Christ is Sorry
Charlie Crist, once the governor of Florida, backed a ban on gay marriage back in 2008. He was a Republican then, and now he's a Democrat running for office again and he's sorry he backed the ban on gay marriage in 2008 and I guess he wants some kind of absolution for this. I'm not sure, not exactly. But I don't think he's going to be the only one to flip flop on this in the coming year. I'm not sure I blame him either. I predict more will follow him to the point where it becomes cliché. At least he's one of the first.
‘I’m sorry I did that. It was a mistake. I was wrong,’ Crist told Watermark. ‘As a Republican, on social issues I always felt I was a round peg in a square hole. I just didn’t fit. But I tried, until I couldn’t do it any more … until I had to say, “Enough is enough.”’
It's been alleged that Crist is also a closeted gay man. There was even a documentary produced about this called
Outrage. I saw it in 2009 and found it very sad and interesting at the same time.
You can read more here.
Free Gay Excerpt Loving Daylight
It's Friday and I always like to put up an excerpt for the weekend in case I don't get a chance to post. This one is from a book I wrote with a pen name for a collection of romance books that was sold on the Home Shopping Network back in 2009. It's a vampire novel called
Loving Daylight. This is the raw version.
For the first time in eighty years,
Avenir LaFramboise was returning to the place where he’d been born, Glendale
Harbor, Maine, on Mt. Desert Island. It was a cool night in late
September and he could smell the salt water in the air. He’d just turned one
hundred and one years old. But he didn’t have gray hair and he didn’t walk with
a cane. The only thing that looked old about him was the car he was driving, a
l978 red Mercedes convertible with a black top. He’d had the car since it was
new and could never abide the idea of parting with it.
When
Avenir truly loved something, he was willing to do anything in his power to
hold on to it and preserve it forever.
His
hair was still light golden brown, short and wavy, the way it had been the day
his life had changed forever back in l929. It never grew longer, and if he
shaved his head bald, it would grow back to the same exact length within
minutes. His eyes were steel blue and shaped like pumpkin seeds. He had a lean,
wiry body, with long muscles in his legs and arms. He’d been a rower, so the
lines of his square chest muscles and his defined abdomen cracked through the
surface of his skin with little effort. And his skin was always slightly tanned
all year long, because he’d become a vampire on a warm night at the end of one
of the hottest, sunniest July's ever recorded in Mt. Desert
history.
When
he pulled up to the front gate, he stopped the car and smiled at a bronze sign
embedded in the stone wall that wrapped around the forty-acre property. The
sign read “Raspberry Hall.” Raspberry was the English translation of his last name.
Avenir’s father had had a great sense of humor and he’d never been above poking
fun at himself. Avenir could remember the day his father had decided on this
name for the house. It was the first day they’d moved in; his father’s face had
beamed with pride. Avenir shook his head and laughed, then he pulled up to the
gate and pressed the intercom button.
A
minute later, a young woman’s voice said, “May I ask who is calling?”
Avenir
pressed his hand to his chest and swallowed. Her voice sounded so familiar he
had trouble finding his own. “Ah well, yes,” he said, “Avenir LaFramboise.” She
sounded just like his beloved Adriana, but he knew her name was Sienna.
“I’ll
open the gate,” the woman said. “Just follow the drive and pull up to the main
entrance, please. We’ve been expecting you.”
While the gate slowly opened, he took a deep
breath and sighed. They thought he was visiting because he wanted to get to
know his family better. But the real reason was that he’d seen Sienna’s photo
in the news a month earlier. She’d found a baby seal on the beach and she’d
spent the entire night on the sand nursing it while she’d waited for help.
She’d covered it with her jacket and wrapped her arms around its weak body to
protect it from the cold. And the story of her unselfish act (to his surprise)
had made headlines all around the world for two days in a row.
The
baby seal lived, and the experts said it was all because of what Sienna had
done for it. So they named the seal Sienna in her honor.
Her full name was
Sienna Harrington, the great-granddaughter of his first love, Adriana Laperouse
Harrington. When he saw the article about the seal on his computer screen, and
then saw Sienna’s photo, he knew he had to go home and see her in person. They
were visually identical. And he wanted to find out more about her, because he’d
never been able to get Adriana out of his head.
He
passed through the gate slowly, amazed at how little things had changed in all
those years. The uphill gravel drive was still lined with tall oaks, the
hedgerows were still trimmed into rows of long, flat boxes, and the iron,
three-tiered fountain in the middle of the front lawn was still surrounded by
small, round boxwoods. He stopped for a moment and stared up at the house. The
four gray stone towers still seemed to anchor the rest of the massive stone
structure. A light blazed in each of the sixty-five rooms.
When
he pulled up to the front and parked beneath the portico, he looked to the
right. The soaring, dark double doors opened at the same time and a young woman
stood in the center of the doorway. Her hair was long and blond and parted dead
center. She wore a simple black dress and black high heels. He switched off the
engine and clicked off the lights. And when he got out of the car and crossed
to the front door, a lump formed in his throat that was so large he could
barely swallow.
“I’m
Sienna,” the young woman said, “I work here.” She gave him a blank stare; her
hands were folded below her stomach.
He
smiled. “I’m Avenir LaFramboise,” he said. He’d read in the news article that
she was a housekeeper, and he didn’t understand. Adriana Laperouse, Sienna’s
great-grandmother, had married into a family that had been even wealthier than
his, the Harringtons. How had Sienna wound up being the LaFramboise family
housekeeper so many years later?
She
pressed her lips together and nodded, but she wouldn’t look him in the eye.
“I’ll show you to the library,” she said. “The family is waiting for you
there.” Then she unfolded her hands and stepped to the side so he could enter.
The
interior of the house hadn’t changed much either. He stopped in the center of
the main hall and lifted his head higher. His expression remained empty, except
for the fact that his mouth was slightly open. The walk-in fireplace to the
right still had the hand carved woodwork and mantel that had been shipped from Italy, the dark
walnut panels on the walls that had been shipped from England had
aged well with time, and the gray and white marble floor looked even better now
that it wasn’t slick and shiny. He took a breath and inhaled. The house still
smelled like smoldering cedar chips.
Sienna
stood there staring at him. While he reached out and touched one of the columns
with the tips of his fingers, she folded her hands again and rested them on her
stomach. The four columns in the hall had originally been dark wood, but his
father had hired a French artist to paint them with a faux marble technique to
lighten the room. They looked so much like pink marble you had to touch them to
feel the warmth of the wood to be sure they weren’t real stone.
He
smiled and said, “They look so authentic.”
“Yes,
they do,” she said. Then she unfolded her hands and extended her right arm. “If
you’d like to follow me now, I’ll take you to the library.”
He already knew where the library was. He’d
studied for his school exams there many nights. But he smiled and said, “Of
course.”
She
led him down the hall toward the rear of the house. The black dress was tight
and it hugged the round curves of her beautiful body. She even walked like
Adriana, with a slight lilt in her step and a natural jiggle in her hips.
When
they reached the library, she said, “Mr. LaFramboise is here.”
Avenir
tilted his head to the side and corrected her fast. “Please,” he said, “Call me
Avenir.”
But
before she had a chance to reply, an attractive young man rose from an antique
armchair beside the fireplace and crossed to where he was standing. He stepped
in front of Sienna, placing his back to her face, and said, “I’m your distant
cousin, Larson LaFramboise,” he said. “I’m not exactly sure how we’re related,
but I think our great-grandfathers were brothers.” He stared closely, and his
eyes darted up and down.
Avenir
shook his hand and smiled. “They were brothers,” he said. “Their father
started making LaFramboise Liqours in France, then he moved to the United States
and invested his money in steel.” Larson was a good-looking man in his early
twenties, with dark hair and a well-formed, muscular body. But he looked
nothing like Avenir. The only part of Larson that resembled the rest of the LaFramboise
family were his steel blue eyes.
Then
a middle-aged man with salt and pepper hair stood from the sofa and shook his
head. His eyes were wide and he cinched his eyebrows. He pointed to two oval
portraits over the fireplace and said, “I can’t believe how much you resemble
your great-grandfather,” he said. “It’s uncanny.” One portrait was actually
Avenir, and the other was Avenir’s brother, Pierre. But the man didn’t know
this.
Avenir
looked up at the painting and smiled. “It’s does look like me,” he said. He
remembered well the day that picture was taken. He’d just come back from a
morning of sailing with his father and brother, and his mother had insisted he
sit for the portrait. When he’d looked into the lens and the photographer
snapped the photo, he’d lifted one eyebrow slightly higher than the other. He’d
never actually seen the portrait up close because he’d disappeared not long
after it was taken.
A woman stood from the other soda and put her
martini glass on the coffee table. She was in her mid-forties, with red hair
and bright red lipstick. She was wearing a tight leopard cocktail dress with
gold stilettos and black stockings. She waved her arm in Sienna’s direction and
said, “That will be all, Sienna. We’ll call for you when we’re ready to dine.
Thank you, dear.”
Sienna
turned and left the room without wavering. Avenir watched her leave the room
and disappear into the hallway.
The
woman said, “I’m Karla LaFramboise. Please excuse my husband, Robert, for not
introducing himself to you.” She gave Robert a look and extended her arm to
shake Avenir’s hand.
Then
Robert extended his hand to Avenir and said, “I’m so sorry. I just can’t get
over the resemblance. And to be honest, when I first heard you were coming, I
was a little leery about meeting you. After all, your great-grandfather
disappeared very mysteriously and no one ever heard from him again.”
Avenir
shook his hand and smiled. “I can understand how you feel,” he said. “It took
me a long time to muster the courage to contact you.” He’d planned an
explanation ahead of time because he knew they’d be curious about his
background. “As I’ve always been told, my great-grandfather left Maine to study in Europe. But I’m not sure about the full story. He died
long before I was born. My grandfather and my father both died young, too. I’m
afraid I’m the only one left from my branch of the family. When my mother
passed away last year, I decided to look up the family tree.”
“What
did your father do?” Larson asked. He looked Avenir up and down and bit the
inside of his face.
“He
owned shopping malls all over the United States,” Avenir said. “And I inherited
everything when my mother died.” It wasn’t a total lie. Avenir had started
buying up properties back in the l930s…during the Depression when they were
cheap. He was bored and alone and he didn’t have much else to do. Now he was a
wealthy man; he owned almost as much land as the Catholic Church. And he’d been
building indoor shopping malls all over America since the early l960s.
“Interesting,”
Robert said, “I’m interested in hearing everything about you. I’ve always been
curious about why your great-grandfather disappeared without a trace.”
Avenir
rubbed his jaw and smiled, then he shook his head and said, “I’m afraid I’m not
going to be much help. I probably know just about as much as you.” It was a
plausible excuse; no one could fault him for what he didn’t know.
After
that, Karla invited Avenir into the library and offered him a drink. They were
having cocktails later than usual because Avenir didn’t arrive until after
dusk. He graciously accepted a martini and sat down on one of the sofas next to
Larson. Unlike so many of the dramatic legends that claimed vampires couldn’t
eat or drink anything but blood, Avenir could tolerate anything humans
consumed. Though human food wasn’t something he needed in order to survive, it
didn’t hurt him. Food and drink entered his body the same way it entered the
human body. But the second he chewed and swallowed, it evaporated and vanished
completely. It was like pouring liquid into the wide end of a funnel and having
nothing come out the bottom.
A
short time later, Karla called Sienna on the intercom and told her they were
ready for dinner. Sienna returned to the library, escorted them into the dining
room, and then disappeared through the kitchen door. Avenir watched her leave
with wide eyes. He marveled at how easily she moved through the room with that
never-ending blank expression on her face.
Then
Sienna disappeared completely. An older, heavy-set woman took over and served
them dinner. No one offered an explanation. And when Avenir casually mentioned
Sienna during the main course, Karla smiled and said, “Sienna usually leaves at
night. She has a part-time job somewhere else.”
“I
see,” Avenir said. He went back to eating small morsels of food that he
couldn’t taste. He thought about asking where Sienna’s other part-time job was,
but he didn’t want them to know he was interested in her.
When dinner was finally over (it took forever),
he removed his napkin from his lap and stood up before everyone else. If it
hadn’t been the fact that he’d seen Sienna, this would have been the most
boring night of his life. Karla and Robert could only be described as droll
buffoons. Karla had a deep voice that cracked, and Robert spoke from the side
of his mouth with a hiss. They gossiped about local real estate as if they were
experts, and dropped names along the way about all the rich and powerful people
they knew on Mt. Desert Island.
They spoke of one wealthy family as if they were best friends, and dissed a
famous celebrity in the next town as being nothing but “trashy new money you
wouldn’t want to associate with.” And Larson hardly said a word. He sat there
eating his dinner without looking up, while the other two rambled through two
hours of empty conversation.
Robert
offered Avenir a nightcap in the library, but Avenir quickly raised his hands
and said, “If you’ll excuse me, I’d like to go to my room now.” He was only
staying there for a short time. He had to pretend to go to bed just like
everyone else. They had no idea that he’d already arranged for a safe place to
rest during the daylight hours where no one could find him, a dark place in an
abandoned old house he was about to purchase. “I work at night and sleep most
of the day. I find it more productive. And tomorrow evening I have an
appointment to look at some real estate.” He had no intention of working. But the
thought of spending a minute more with them made his fangs hurt.
“Real
estate?” Robert asked. His eyes opened wide and he leaned forward. He wasn’t
even concerned about the odd statement Avenir had made about working at night
and sleeping all day.
“Yes,”
Avenir said, “I’m thinking of buying the old Harrington estate on the cliff not
far from here.” He didn’t think they’d even care. He didn’t think they had any
connections to the house. Avenir didn’t
know all the history behind the property, but he knew that the last owner to
live there had been Sienna’s uncle, her father’s brother. When the uncle died,
Sienna’s cousins moved away and let it fall into complete disrepair.
“Oceanview?”
Karla asked, and then turned to her husband and frowned. She pressed her palm
to her throat and looked back at Avenir.
Avenir
held the back of the dining room chair and stared at them for a moment. “What’s
wrong?” From the way they were staring at him, it looked as if they’d just
discovered he was a vampire and that he really was the original Avenir LaFramboise.
Larson
smacked his lips together and said, “That place is a mess. It should have been
torn down years ago. It’s an eyesore and it’s creepy. I’ve even heard that it’s
haunted.”
Avenir
raised his eyebrows and said, “Well, I’m going to see it tomorrow. From what
I’ve seen on the Internet it has great potential. And it is the largest estate
on the island.” They had no idea how well Avenir knew the house. He’d watched
it being built a long time ago as a child. The original owner had been the
founder of the Harrington fortune. The fact that it was rumored to be haunted
only made it more interesting. Avenir hadn’t come in contact with a ghost in a
long time.
“I
strongly advise you to stay away from that property,” Robert said. His lips twitched
and his voice wavered.
Karla
crossed to where Avenir was standing and patted his hand. “Don’t be too
disappointed, dear. After you’ve seen it, we can call our realtor and
have her show you something more suitable. Oceanview is a teardown.”
