Excuse Me Sir

I just found this great video on Youtube about butches that addresses some of the stereotypes. I really like it. What do you think?

Leadership, Obama Style...by Drew Westen

This article is long, but worth the read. My friend Scott posted it on his Facebook and I thought I'd throw it up here. Emory University Professor Drew Westen, a contributor at the Huffinton Post, makes some well-constructed, well-thought arguments about Obama's first year in office. Have a look. It's makes you think.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/drew-westen/leadership-obama-style-an_b_398813.html

Dipstick's Dipsomania

My GF subscribes to a "Word of the Day" feature on her Google homepage. She had to share today's word with me because it I seem to be struck with this condition lately:

Dipsomania: an insatiable periodic craving for alcohol
But I know I'm not the only one with cravings. I thought I'd make up a few words of my own:

Lipsomania: an insatiable periodic craving to go shopping

Tripsomania: an insatiable periodic craving to go on a a lesbian cruise

Slipsomania: an insatiable periodic craving to dress in lingerie

Ripsomania: an insatiable periodic craving to workout your abs

Hipsomania: an insatiable periodic craving to belly dance.

Happy Holidays Everyone from Lipstick & Dipstick

Merry Christmas from Lipstick & Dipstick

Merry Christmas from Us

My Mom sent this to me this morning. Her local paper asked for people to send in their favorite Christmas memories and she sent this in. It was published today in the Syracuse Post Standard. I wanted to share it with you, because I thought it was sweet. This is my oldest brother.

Whenever I look at this photo that my husband took 53 years ago, I can still hear our son Matt’s “oh, no!”

We are of Austrian and German tradition, which means you may bring the Christmas tree into the house before Christmas, but it waits until Santa comes to decorate it.
The photo shows Matt’s first look at the tree, all lit up and decorated. He ran out of the room, ran back, shouted “oh, no!” again and once more ran into the kitchen. The third time he did quiet down and let us show him what Santa brought him. His reaction made all those late hours fussing with lights and putting garages and trikes and wagons together well worth the lost sleep.
Betty K. Belge
Syracuse

Have a Courageous Conversation

This holiday season, the Courage Campaign is encouraging us to talk to our family, friends and neighbors about marriage equality. Sit com stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Eric McCormack made a few PSAs to help us get the conversation started. They're kind of hokey, but worth sharing.

She Bop

Attention all Portland lezzies: there is a new sex shop in town! SHE BOP.

Longtime friends Evy Cowan and Jeneen Doumitt opened the shop on the now-gentrified-uber-trendy Mississippi district. This women-owned sex toy boutique specializing in body safe products and will soon feature workshops and education resources, which women need. Lipstick & Dipstick love sex-positive people!

If you live in Portland or are just visiting, drop by:

SHE BOP
909 N. Beech St
Portland, OR 97227
503-473-8018

For shits and giggles, I've embedded Cyndi Lauper's "She Bop" video below. I love Cyndi!

Kate McKinnon in "Best Actress" Tomorrow Night

Hello New York!

Have you seen Kate McKinnon on the Big Gay Sketch Show? If not, you must have your gay head in the sand (that or you don't have cable).

Well, lucky New Yorkers, Kate is doing a one woman show tomorrow night called "Best Actress" at the Uptight Citizens Brigade Theater and it's sure to be fantabulous! I wish I didn't live 3000 miles away.

DETAILS
Wednesday December 23, 2009
9:30 pm
Uptight Citizens Brigade Theater
307 W. 26th Street
New York, NY 10001 (212) 366-9176
$5 (how can you beat that price?!)
Make a reservation

If you're in New York City, go support our friend Kate! It's sure to be one hellova show.



If you're not familiar with Kate, watch the video below from Season 1 of The Big Gay Sketch Show on Logo.

Christmas with the Obamas

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know that I volunteered for the Obama campaign and was very excited when he got elected. But since January, I've been pretty disappointed.


I know what you're thinking. Not enough healthcare reform. He could have ended the ban on gays in the military. He could have done a lot more for gay and lesbian immigration reform. Well, yes, I'm disappointed in all those things, but really, I just can't believe after the 10 hours of work I put into his campaign, that Barack and Michelle haven't invited me to the White House.

Somehow, when he held the reception for gay and lesbian activist leaders, my name wasn't on the invite list. Trust me, I thought of crashing the party long before the Salahi's ever did.

But finally, today, some redemption. No, not an invite, but at least a Holiday card. Signed by Barack and Michelle themselves. Personally, I don't like their choice of card. I would have picked a nice snow scene. But I feel special now, finally. I'll try not to pay too much attention to the fine print on the back that says, _{"Paid for by the Democratic National Committee. This communcation is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee."}

Correction

For some reason, I am usually drawn to the "corrections" that appear in my daily paper. Usually someone's name is spelled wrong, or someone was misidentified in a photo. Today's correction made me laugh, though. Here it is:

In a review of HBO's "Every...Day of My Life" in Monday's How We Live Section, the means of attack on Aaron Maldonado was misidentified. He was bludgeoned with a hammer and a pole ax.

Where Do Lesbians Find Undercover Lovers?

Dip and I are working on our next column for Curve Magazine and we need your help!

Please take chime in (poll on the left sidebar) about where lesbians most often cheat.

We want to know what you think!

Is it...

- At the Office?

- On the Road?

- On the Internet?

- At School?

- At the Bar?

- In the World of Past Lovers?

Results will be published in Curve this spring...

Coyote Escapes Death

This is such a crazy story and if there weren't photos to prove it, I'd think it was a fish story. Here is the story (not in my words):

Meet the wiliest of all coyotes: Hit by a car at 75mph, embedded in the fender, rode for 600 miles - and SURVIVED!

When a brother and sister struck a coyote at 75mph they assumed they had killed the animal and drove on. They didn't realize this was the toughest creature ever to survive a hit-and-run. Eight hours, two fuel stops, and 600 miles later they found the wild animal embedded in their front fender - and very much alive.

Daniel and Tevyn East were driving at night along Interstate 80 near the Nevada-Utah border when they noticed a pack of coyotes near the roadside on October 12. When one of the animals ran in front of the car, the impact sounded fatal so the siblings thought there no point in stopping.

'Right off the bat, we knew it was bad,' Daniel explained. 'We thought the story was over.' After the incident around 1am, they continued their 600 mile drive to North San Juan - even stopping for fuel at least twice. But it was only when they finally reached their destination at 9am did they take time to examine what damage they may have sustained.

At first it looked as though it was going to be quite gruesome. '[Daniel] saw fur and the body inside the grill,' Tevyn East said. 'I was trying to keep some distance. Our assumption was it was part of the coyote - it didn't register it was the whole animal.' Daniel East got a broom to try and pry the remains out of the bumper and got the shock of his life. 'It flinched,' Tevyn East said. 'It was a huge surprise - he got a little freaked out.'

UPDATE: I don't know any updates of the survivor, but I trust he was just fine.

Stocking Stuffer Alert :: How to Sew a Button

Are you girls starting to scramble around looking for gifts? Making lists and checking them twice? Can't find anything for Aunt Alice, your cousin who just graduated from college or your best friend from work? I've got a great idea for you: Erin Bried's book How to Sew a Button comes out this week and it's a must have! On December 15th, people will be lining up all over America to pick up a hot copy. Get yours pre-ordered today or head out later this week to your local bookstore to score a copy.

To read more about the book, click here.

Also, check out all the great "How To" videos she has online on her channel "Nifty Button." Today, she'll teach you how to make a Manhattan! Cheers~

Another one of my favorite's is (of course): How to Wear Red Lipstick

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Is all of North America in a deep freeze right now or what?

It's colder than a witch's tit up here in Vancouver, BC and I hear it's equally as chilly down in Portland, where the Dipster is. The news is also littered with stories of woe about the deep freeze that's happend across America.

Nothing, however, compares the cold that is found "whistling" at the top of Whistler Mountain. (Side note: Whistler is named after the hoary marmot, which whistles.)

I braved the slopes on Sunday with two good friends, Jill and Jess, and we had to stop after two runs to thaw in the powder house.

On the mountain, there were ominous signs warning of cold effects and frost bite (that can happen when you simply take your glove off to check your blackberry on the ski lift). I had every inch of skin covered and a subzero ski jacket and ski pants (that's me in the red coat), but it wasn't enough. Next time, instead of being a shredder, I may just hang at the cabin with Patty (the smart one), who stayed behind with Jill + Jess' adorable baby girl, Harper.


Stay warm~

Lip

Hanging Out with Butches

Even though I am clearly butch-identified and even write from the butch perspective for a living, I'm sad to admit that I don't have a lot of butch friends in my day-to-day life. Most of my butch gals live elsewhere. Sure, we text each other when the Stanford women play basketball and meet up in SF every year for the dyke march, but really, it's not enough.

So I was super excited when my old pal Evan decided to start the "Butch Crew" after attending the Butch Voices conference in Oakland this summer. The Butch Crew is a monthly meeting of butches to talk about gender and identity and situations butches encounter, like bathroom problems or dating other butches. And it's awesome!

I missed the first meeting because I was on some lesbian cruise, but was able to meet up with the gals this past weekend. And I'm looking forward to many more gatherings. If you're in Portland and are a female-identified butch, please join us:

Sunday, January 10

Butch Crew PDX Meet up

Time:3:00PM Sunday, January 10th

Location:Flying Cat Coffee Co., 3041 SE Division St. Portland.

That's What She Said

Lipstick & I saw some amazing talent on the Sweet Cruise. One of my favorites That's What She Said. That’s What She Said is a mad musical bouquet of imaginative, comic songs about lesbians. My favorite, was the U-Haul Song.

Their show is a benefit for Jeff Bader who needs help to finance in-home care as he lives with ALS.

Saturday, December 12, 2009
Time:	8:00pm - 11:00pm
Location:	Q Center
Street:	4115 N mississippi Ave

Whistler Wishes for Meredith

Greetings from sunny Whistler! Dip's right. I had intended to write about Meredith Baxter to give her a holler and a "woot woo!" for coming out before I left town, but ran out of time.

By now, it's quite old news, but it was funny how we learned Meredith was on the boat. We were sitting at the pool when I first heard rumblings about her. Laying on my back reading a novel, I heard a dyke a few chairs down say "MB alert" to her friends. In gay unison, they all sat up, pulled down their sunglasses and looked in one direction. Curious, I, too, followed their gaze, assuming that they were alerting about some ex-girlfriend who'd been stalking one of them or about a hot woman they'd all had their eye on and intended to encircle on the dance floor that night. Nothing stood out, so I pried: "What does MB alert mean?"

"Meredith Baxter is coming our way."

"Who?" I asked, looking toward the woman. Super surprised, I saw the mom from Family Ties headed in our direction. (Of course, I thought she was still Meredith Baxter Birney.)

"Huh," I said to my girlfriend, "I didn't know Alex Keaton's mom was a lesbian."

And then the firestorm of media attention after we got home and her big proclamation on the Today Show, which was extremely brave. It's hard enough to come out on your living room couch, let alone on national morning TV.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Curve Magazine's Heather Robinson did a great job covering the story, so if you want to read more, check it out online. Congrats Meredith!

All that Hollywood stuff aside, we're here in Whistler celebrating my birthday this weekend. We've been having such a nice time and it's simply amazing how "Olympic-ized" Whistler (and Vancouver for that matter) are becoming. To illustrate my point, I've included the photo below of Patty and I having a sample of the "Triple Lutz," a martini shooter saluting the famous figure skating jump yesterday at the Mallard Lounge (our favorite place to warm the tootsies apres ski and start an evening off right). Thanks to bartender Lisa Marie!

The Fairmont Chateau Whistler has a whole list of special drinks for Olympic enthusiasts and athletes, who dare throw a few back while in Canada for the 2010 Winter Olympics (which is February12-28, 2010).

Alcohol aside, so many other things are changing around here. The roads are wider, the traffic patterns have changed, some of the golf links are being turned into parking lots, huge nordic centers and bobsled tracks have been erected, buildings are popping up, new restaurants are putting up signs, and parking lots are filling with trailers for temporary housing. It will be pretty amazing to be up here for the Olympics, but I think we will all be happy when the torch is passed to the next city.

I'll try and take some more shots this weekend of things in Whistler Village that drive home my point.

Go Portia

The big news this week is that Meredith Baxter came out, after being on the Sweet Cruise that Lipstick & I were both on. Lipstick saw Meredith a couple of times on the ship and promised to write about it, but I know she's a little busy this week.

While we wait for that report, our friend Portia was on The View this morning talking about her relationship with Ellen and why the word marriage is so important. She really impressed me with how clearly she made her point. Go Portia!