They want 1939 Germany. Let’s give them 1789 France.

My Sunday viewing was Heated Rivalry, episodes 4-6. This is the story of hockey players Shane and Ilya, who sneak off to each other’s hotel when their teams are in the same town. Yeah, we’ve known from the start where this is going and it follows the formula for romance stories. And part of the formula is the couple establishes their relationship, which they do in episodes 1 and 2 (episode 3 was mostly about Scott and Kip), then the couple goes through difficulties, which is episode 4, to understand how much they love each other, leading to the expected conclusion by episode 6. What, you thought the story wasn’t going to end there? A couple things in these three episodes: That Ilya is Russian becomes a factor because he knows being openly gay in Russia is a crime. It’s not just the reaction of his teammates he’s worried about. The whole timespan is nine years. Scott and Kip make a dramatic appearance. And Shane invites Ilya to his “cottage.” A lot of people in Michigan have a “cottage” or “cabin” Up North (considered north of Mt. Pleasant). I’ve been to a few cottages owned by other people though never owned one myself. The cottages I’ve seen do not have this much glass. The ending definitely leaves room for more story. Season 2 is in production and might be available in a year. I quite enjoyed it and add my recommendation to the large stack of praise already out there. Krotor is a part of the Daily Kos community and is a writer of the Boys Love column on Kos. Many of the stories he reviews are made in Asia where men loving men are seen quite differently than in the West. He did a series of three posts on Heated Rivalry. In summary, he loves the show. In the first he compares HR to three other filmed stories of gay love. The first is Brokeback Mountain. I had previously mentioned Krotor’s opinion that this movie is quite awful. The sex scene was “laughably bad” and the story is so homophobic one guy is murdered and the other is shut out from family, friends, and job. Krotor’s rant is here. The second movie is Call Me By Your Name. This is better, but not much. Krotor thinks Oliver preyed on Elio’s emotions for a summer fling. And why didn’t Elio’s parents see this? The series Heartstopper is pretty good, though toned down for the teen viewer. The show also highlights a dynamic in many Japanese gay romances. One partner is the seme, the protector and guide (Nick) while the other is the uke, the more fragile (Charlie). In the Western view of things the seme is more the “real man.” HR doesn’t have the depth of homophobia of Brokeback, nor the power and age imbalance of Call Me, not even the protector/protected role of Heartstoppers. Shane and Ilya are about the same age and both are fierce competitors. They are their own agents. And their sex scenes are a lot steamier. But the homophobia is enough so that as Shane and Ilya become more intimate they take a long time to come to terms with their growing love, hopes, and fears. Of course, perceptive female friends are involved. In the second post Krotor looks at research on the BL genre (yes, there is such a thing) and his own observations and conversations to explain how HR is such a big hit, and not just with gay men. The show is a hit with straight men because of hockey. In this manly sport Shane and Ilya are competitive and fierce, not at all the stereotype of gay men. Krotor also discusses male bonding – a lot of straight male emotional connection is with the men they hang out with. That bonding includes competitiveness. And Shane and Ilya are that. Jumping from masculine rivalry to masculine passion to relieve physical needs, isn’t that big of a jump. What might be jarring to the straight man is the lack of domination. This isn’t just shy of sexual assault. There is reciprocity, equality, and consent. Maybe the gay guys can teach the straight guys a few things. The show is a hit with straight women because they can watch a love story without worrying whether the female character (and themselves) face male chauvinism. This is why the “overwhelming majority” of gay romance stories are written by straight women for straight women. This includes Heated Rivalry. Notice the “written” – when converted to other media the work is done by men, often gay men. Krotor noted that the new Prime Minister of the Netherlands is Rob Jetten, whose fiancé is Nicholas Keenen, a prominent player in field hockey. After the wedding Keenen becomes “first gentleman.” In the third part Krotor discussed a few minor problems with the otherwise excellent HR story. First, a couple things done right: Their sex included consent. Rose showed up in episode 4 as Shane’s friend and was pivotal in helping him realize he’s gay and still remained a friend. On to the problems: Nine years? These guys took that long to acknowledge there was an emotional component to their trysts? That long is way too long for two adult men to have no personal growth. Elena was Kip’s friend who recognized Scott had fallen for Kip. In a public space she had a talk with Scott, urging him to public acknowledge his lover. Krotor called foul. Scott had very good reasons why he needed to remain closeted. If Kip needed something different than Kip should do something about it, not her. Also, though Kip is out he knows how the closet works. Kip took Scott to an art gallery and Scott fled in panic, which probably drew more attention than trying to play it cool. Krotor then discussed the problem of guys playing gay characters. The audience wants to know if the actor is straight or gay, something they don’t do when gay plays straight, That implies the straight guy will need to reestablish his straight credentials. In the Western stories of men loving men show the characters having to deal with societal issues, with homophobia at the top of the list. In Eastern stories, the men are not tokens to represent an entire class of people. They are individuals dealing with individual problems. Krotor ends his series with an alternate script for the story. In this version they don’t start with sex, but with mutual respect. They come together to promote charities (which happens only in episode 6). But they keep the romance a secret because teammates might think they’re sacrificing victory for love. Both men get encouragement from female friends, Shane from Rose and Ilya from childhood friend Svetlana. After a time in the cabin, in which they recognize and declare their love, and after their next rival game, they kiss on ice. They assure fans they will continue to fight hard for every win. Fans cheer. Talk shows make them frequent guests. I think it’s a nice version to the story, but too tame. It also very much follows Eastern Boys Love scripts. What did appear on the screen is groundbreaking by Western standards, but by Eastern standards it is already typical. Those stories already show those kinds of relationships. Gay men are already portrayed as able to reach love and happiness. The Daily Kos staff created an open thread to allow community members to post about their No Kings experience. Some of what was said: Bristlecone77 in rural Colorado, a town of 5K residents, had almost 30 at the rally. A man, age 102 and WWII veteran, sat in his wheelchair. His family draped his military jacket over him and placed his No Kings sign against he legs. Sign: “Teens shouldn’t have to protest the actions of adults.” Sign: “War crimes don’t hide sex crimes.” From Elon’s Own Hellsite:

They want 1939 Germany Let’s give them 1789 France

Sign: “I survived Auschwitz for this [poop]?” Sign: “I’m a better Christian than any Trump supporter and I’m an atheist.” Sign: Trump: “See you later, alligator.” Alligator, “At your trial, pedophile.” Bill in Portland, Maine, in his Cheers and Jeers column for Kos used Monday’s column to post photos of the rally in his hometown. In Sunday’s pundit roundup for Kos Chitown Kev quoted Susan Page of USA Today discussing the No King’s protests.

The organizers' crowd count, not yet verified by independent analysts, put the total at 8 million people, topping the 7 million estimated at the last "No Kings" day, in October 2025. This time, there were more events scheduled − 3,300 versus 2,700 − and larger crowds reported in some places, boosted in part by opposition to the war in Iran. [...] Organizers said two-thirds of the participants who signed up lived outside big cities, with a 40% increase over last time in those from suburban, small town and rural addresses.

I followed a link to the Political Dictionary for the definition of the word dummymander. It is a gerrymander that backfires. It is an attempt to claim so many seats for one party that each seat doesn’t have enough of a party lead when the mood shifts to the other party. A reminder of how gerrymandering works. If party A is drawing the maps it will draw a few districts with huge margins that favor party B. This is called packing. Then the rest of the districts are drawn so that party A has a clear, but not great, advantage. Put another way, the rest of the party B voters are spread harmlessly through the other districts. This is called cracking. Dummymander results when party A tries to claim too many seats, such that the “clear” advantage is less than the shift in public opinion from A to B and party A loses what they expected to be safe seats. That might be what happens in Texas or other states that did mid decade redistricting. Kos of Kos discussed the SAVE Act, the bill that would demand greater citizenship verification when registering to vote. It is to prevent non citizens from voting (already quite rare), but would also prevent a lot of citizens from voting, its actual objective. The nasty guy is demanding the Senate pass it. Kos explained why Republican senators are resisting. One provision is that the birth certificate must match the voter’s current name. The intent is to keep trans people from voting, but it would more directly harm married women. Marriage certificates usually aren’t readily available. In 2024, 52% of married women voted for the nasty guy. A 2023 Pew study showed that 86% of conservative women took their husband’s last name, compared to 70% of liberal women. More educated women are less likely to take their husband’s name and they increasingly vote Democratic. Passports are an accepted form of proof of citizenship, but 52% of nasty guy voters don’t have one, compared to 45% of Biden voters. And only 38% of evangelicals have passports. Getting or replacing them costs money and time, and that can be seen as a poll tax. Republicans have good reasons to not approve the SAVE Act. Back in 1981, when I was still a young programmer (in the day “coders” were looked down on because they were seen as not doing the analysis work a “programmer” did) in the auto industry I and my colleagues were entranced by the book The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder. It told the story of a team near Boston that designed and built a new computer (a time before computers were put on desktops). He did it by showing up and observing the team at work. Kidder discussed some of the personalities and explained some of the terms I and my colleagues used in our work. Some of those explanations prompted a few, “So that’s what that means!” I remember one of the people, who had been dealing with the milliseconds and microseconds of computer work, quit to work on a farm where the shortest time interval he had to deal with was a season. This one won a Pulitzer Prize in 1982. That prompted me to look for Kidder’s books. I read House, in which he describes what goes into designing and building a new house. Again, he was on site as it happened. Then came Among Schoolchildren, where he sat in on a fifth grade class for a schoolyear. I’ve also read Home Town, about a small town, Mountains Beyond Mountains, about health care in Haiti (I think), and A Truck Full of Money. I’ve got Rough Sleepers, about homeless people, on my to-read shelf. Maybe around 2005 I saw Kidder at a live event in which he talked about Mountains Beyond Mountains. He included a few dramatic before and after photos of people treated at the health clinic. Each of the books was an enjoyable and educational read. He explained his topic well and with a kind heart for his subjects. I recommend them all. I mention all that because on March 24 Kidder died at the age of 80. Alas, there won’t be any more books.