The "ShitStorm" is coming...I can see it on the horizon...I can feel it coming...

Woman and Strad...
Originally uploaded by igor.shmel

I've had a microburst of traffic today. In the last four hours I've had as much traffic as I have on an entire "heavy traffic" day.

The strange thing is that it's all coming from the state of New York. Ithaca, Buffalo, Fairport, Rochester, Webster, Mayville, Syracuse, Auburn. Howdy folks! Welcome to my humble blog!

As I am writing this I think I may have figured it out. Someone must have posted something on the Buffalo Area Tango Society [BATS] Yahoo Group page. Something about one of my posts.

Part of my point in this post, this here one (in southern speak), is to touch on the back-and-forth on Tango-L - the "on similes and such, like..." thread. When I first read it this morning, I said to my self... "Self...you are about to get your self some flak for the Car and Driver (re)post... you better get your flak jacket out... "

Poor Floyd from the BATS has been run through the ringer of late because of his comparison - "simile" - of a leader being a Maestro violinist and the follower being a Stradivarius violin. No problem for me there, I know what he was trying to say.

Another one people take offense to is the "leader is the artist, the follower is the brush" concept.

The people who don't like Floyd's comment(s), surely won't like my re-post (from a dance bulletin board in the U.K.) comparing followers to various types of cars, and leaders to various types of drivers.

I found the Car/Driver thing amusing - downright funny - so I chose to re-post a digested form of it. It's just humor after all. Some might say this makes me a misogynist or at least misogynistic. Or anti-feminist. Those of you who know me personally, or know me through my blog, know that I am not. Not at all.

First, you all know that I love women. I don't have a problem with the next President being a woman. Even though I personally think she is unpalatable to most people, including me, personality-wise. I don't even like to hear her talk - the sound of her voice irritates the shit out of me. But if, for example, the Republican candidate were say, MONICA BELLUCCI, I would definitely be voting Republican. In spite of my being a "dyed in the wool" Democrat/Independent.

I also don't have a problem with my future third ex-wife being the Chairman and CEO...make that ChairWoman of GE or Nestle (the largest food/product corporation in the world, with 500,000 employees) or something like that. I would even be a stay-at-home dad and putter around the house. As long as she would let me have my tango. A "no tango" policy from the boss lady would be a deal breaker for me.

Plus, I'm already really good at saying "Yes, dear, whatever you say." And my blanket apology (when I can tell she's pissed about something) of "Whatever I did, or said, or didn't do, or didn't say, I'm sorry." That one always got me huge points for "communication" and "sensitivity" in my marriages. And once it got me a very cold, very icy drink smack dab in the middle of my solar plexus at the dinner table. Being a man who respects women, and the ways in which they emote, I didn't react physically or even verbally. I just sat there, dripping, and quietly finished my dinner. And then I divorced her - 13 years later.

I don't have a problem with women being heads of state and governments and leaders of the world. I welcome and look forward to the day when women are the majority in control - running things. I sincerely believe that the world would be a better place for it.

I don't have a problem with the concept of God being a woman. Although I really am not into the personification of something so important as "God", or the "Supreme Being", or "Supreme Power" or "The Force" or whatever your preference is. I prefer the concept of "energy", just like we humans (our true, underlying selves) are "energetic beings", I believe this "God" thing to also be an energetic being or force. I think it's surely a female, maternalistic, mothering, nuturing, forgiving, thread of feminine energy intertwining the entire universe. Why do we always say "Mother Earth" anyway?

So in closing, I am sorry if I said, or did, or didn't say, or didn't do, anything to offend anyone, woman or man, God or mortal with my "Car and Driver" post. Sorry in advance. And thanks in advance for forgiving me.

I'm all for feminism.

Just not in tango.

Now I'm going to pop some popcorn and watch a movie.

Love in the Time of Cholera. Again.

It's a "chick flick".