Fruit Of The Gods

Once upon a time in the Conch Republic, there was a bronzed party boy who loved to drink mojitos under mango trees. He spent his days with other party boys tanning their nude bottoms under the Key West sun. He spent his nights dancing from one club to the next, never seen without an icy adult beverage in his hand. On one particular evening of Dionysian frivolity, the bronze party boy was enjoying his mojito in a jungle canopied bar. He swayed to Madonna's "Ray of Light", not spilling a drop of minty, limey coolness cradled in his grip. Then from out of nowhere, a large ripe mango hit the top of his head. The impact was so great that he likened that of the image of a whooping crane dodging raindrops. Much to his (and everyone watching) surprise, the cocktail never left his hand and never let a drop leave the tall, icy glass. "I've been hit!", he screamed. Thinking the worst and known for high drama, the bronzed party boy came up swinging (cocktail in hand). His very large, hunky blonde friend standing close by picked up a large mango and presented it to the party boy. Silently they both shrugged their shoulders and began to laugh hysterically. The hunky blonde pulled out his knife and sliced the mango into their cocktails. Lesson of the story: Order a mango daiquiri for emergencies. The End

Still A Ship Of Fools

And while the world has been a changing sea around us, the ever changing Gaggle remains a ship of fools. Thanks to Dusty, this is my fourth blog. I think we owe it to ourselves to give it another go. We still have adventures, drama, COMEDY, a few tears (Skipper and my beloved Chef), food, lots of wine, and a long way to go before retirement! There are more stories to be told, more secrets to keep...tell...then lie about later. There's still plenty of shit to make up! And now we're a little older, a little wiser, a little less inclined to stay out all night...but, we still know how to make each other and more importantly, ourselves...laugh...hysterically, and out loud. I can honestly say that I have had tons of friends in the past, but none like these men and women of the Gaggle. All together, broken into smaller groups, or coupled up...no matter how you dice us up, there is...unquestionalby...no better people that I am inclined to share time with. So, even if some of us don't keep up with blogs, I would like to thank Dusty again for bringing us together, if only in words and images. Peace to the Pink Lady and Miss Peach...our honeys and peace to T Bear...we loves ya girl! And I fully expect to see pictures, video, and some posts from Skipper, Hotass, the Chef, Stick, Jon Jon, Sweet Wade, Dusty, Le BoBo, and of course the aforementioned honeys. Light and Love to my darlings...

Blessed Be,

the Artist, aka Hearthhusband, aka A.J.

Swiffering dust off a dormant blog is a bitch.

Well, it's been almost two years since regular posts showed up here. The main reason is that we're all easily distracted by bright shiny objects, and once updates to any particular blog fall out of regular habit, the dust begins to pile and becomes harder to clean off. Bad analogies aside, we all got busy.

That said, we're all still kickin'. And a recent post on The Artist's blog made me think: we owe the blogosphere an update on the last couple of years.

The Reader's Digest condensed version of the Gaggle's 2006, 2007, and Q12008:

- Some of us moved away from Memphis and some of us stayed.

- Some who moved came back and some didn't.

- We've added to the number of "couples" since last we posted, and some relationships have ended or changed.

- A few "geese" have faded from the center stage for one reason or another and we've added a few, including our first set of fully-qualified lesbians. Which is way cool, because lesbians are wicked-handy to have around and are generally way less obnoxious than gay boys when drunk (a crime of which I am clearly guilty from time to time).

- Some of us have been to India, some of us have been to New Orleans, and some of us haven't left the Mid-South.

- We've managed to drive both of our most favorite homo honeys (or "fag hags", if you're feeling nasty) away from Memphis, although both for good reasons and without any loss of love and mutual adoration.

- We've managed to add a couple other cool straight chicks.

- Some of us have new jobs, some of us started our own businesses, some of us have the same jobs, and some of us are still threatening to quit the same jobs we've been threatening to quit since before there was a gaggle (you know who you are).

- None of us have stopped drinking alcohol.

To sum it up, "change" has been our mantra even more so than Barack Obama's primary campaign. Some of it good, some of it less than good. But all of it as a testament to this thing we call the human experience. And all of it while loving and supporting each other in whatever capacity was appropriate at the time.

For detailed updates, I'll post the status of Dusty and LeBobo (and Honey, of course) here in a day or two. Perhaps it will start a chain of other goose-updates, we shall see. Also, I've updated the "Other Gaggle Blogs" section (see the right hand column) with the valid blog addresses for the only members still actively blogging. I'd love to add more to the list, but these bitches seem to be too busy to blog. C'est la vie.

*UPDATE* Since the original post, Skipper has started blogging again. So I've added a link to his blog on the right. Jeezus H.

Cheers,
Dusty