The Kennedy Center Went Dark

Welcome back to the Watering Hole. A federal judge told the Kennedy Center board on Tuesday that the president's name still cannot go on the building, so about an hour later the board closed the whole place for two years, which is not petty in the slightest. Further down, a baseball team called the Queens is two wins from a trophy nobody has ever held.

A judge said the name stays off the Kennedy Center. An hour later the board closed the building for two years. The ceiling fell on September 4. It became an emergency on the 15th. A drag queen is helping organize Friday. keep reading →

Mitch McConnell came back after three months, and the vote he came back for was 47 to 46 on an Ohio judge. A judge whose court held that refusing a kid's transition says nothing about a parent. Worth the trip. keep reading →

Somebody leaked a Democratic House candidate's old Mr. S Leather ads to the New York Post. “Yeah, that's me.” That was his message to supporters. Reader, he did not flinch. keep reading →

60 Minutes put hidden cameras on Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman. The quoted price for a pardon was $300,000. Yes, those two. The 2019 Buttigieg hoax boys, still working, now with an invoice. keep reading →

The first out gay man to compete in Olympic judo had his jaw broken for celebrating a win. Three metal plates, ten to twelve weeks, no Worlds. His crime was celebrating toward his own bench. keep reading →

The editors of Out, The Advocate and Them put their names to a statement about their own board member. Two weeks earlier the CEO told them all to prioritize meetings with him. Awkward. keep reading →

Jay Katari resigned from equalpride's board the next day. One day. Turns out the org chart does read the masthead. keep reading →

Orville Peck took nearly everything off for Playgirl and kept the mask on. The interview is mostly about getting sober. The cover is entirely about chaps. keep reading →

Women's pro baseball plays for its first title starting tonight, Los Angeles against San Francisco. The LA team is called the Queens. Nobody planned that. First pitch 7pm ET on ESPN+. keep reading →

Coming to New York? Here are the 46 gay bars to know, by neighborhood, with a map. More than half are in Brooklyn and Queens. Yes, there is life east of the Cubbyhole. keep reading →

Bob Mackie died Monday in Palm Springs, of pneumonia. He was 87. The first Emmy ever given for costume design went to him and the man he lived with for fifty years. keep reading →

Sophie Lee was named Best New Overall Mother in the spring. She was shot and killed on Friday, at 27. The second Black trans woman killed in Baltimore in ten weeks. Nearly a hundred came to the corner. keep reading →

Four new things for the stretch of fall where everyone starts standing a little closer together. A hairspray, a sunscreen, a musk, and one glowing mask that costs more than the flight home.

These are ShopMy links, so we earn a small commission if you buy something. It costs you nothing extra, nobody paid us to pick these, and it has no bearing on what makes the list. Prices are what the retailer showed on the day we sent this.

OLAPLEX Shape Set Hairspray $34 Hold without the helmet, which is the entire brief and the one every drugstore can has failed since 1997. Olaplex built an empire on undoing what everything else does to your hair, so a hairspray from them at least turns up with an alibi. Flexible, brushable, and built to survive a room with no air conditioning and forty men in it.

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Ultra Violette Unblock Screen SPF 50 $40 Australian SPF for skin that fights back, which is most of us and almost none of the sunscreen aisle. It is also the first sunscreen in the US to carry bemotrizinol, the filter the FDA cleared in June and the first new one it has approved in over twenty-five years. Soft matte, 50ml. If you quit sunscreen because the last one gave you a chin situation four days before a wedding, consider this the category returning to apologize.

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Salt & Stone Eau de Parfum, Ambrette & Pear $96 A skin musk, which is the industry's polite way of saying it smells like you on a day you got eight hours. Warm, clean, and unisex in the real sense rather than a men's fragrance with the lid painted beige. For when you would rather be noticed at the table than from the doorway.

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Shark CryoGlow LED Face Mask $349.99 The splurge, and the reason your group chat has said the words red light more often this year than how are you. Ten minutes a day, and this one chills your under-eyes too, which is the feature that earns its keep the morning after the night you swore you would leave early. We have not lived with one long enough to hand you a verdict, so take it as a pointer and not a promise.

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— Spencer