Each Friday morning I post a riddle to get you to think outside the box and exercise your brain. I recognize that since this morning is actually Christmas Day many of you will be blissfully out of your daily routine to enjoy the holiday or at a minimum – enjoy not having to be working. This riddle isn’t a particularly difficult, but I like to post this each December around the Christmas holiday.
This week’s brain teaser: What is every parent’s favorite Christmas carol?
Last week Steve Grand released his version of the Bing Cosby classic “I’ll be home for Christmas”, which many have covered over the years. The video brings back handsome actor / model, Trevor LaPaglia who played the role of Grand’s boyfriend in his 2015 remake of the Mariah Carey Christmas classic, All I want for Christmas.
Last December Jeffrey Gent shared this and several other “vintage” photos from past Christmas holidays (including a photo of one man who forgot to put on his pajama bottoms before heading down on Christmas morning). For those who are unfamiliar with Jeffrey, he has a blog called Homo History, but he has not posted since July and is now fairly active on Tik Tok.
I dedicate this weekly post, featuring vintage gay photographs, to the men and women who lived in a more critical time where being true to yourself and loving who you want wasn’t always an option and came at a great price. Do you have a photo you would like to share? Email me at bosguymail@gmail.com.
This week I’m featuring the drawings of Korean artist, Dopey a.k.a Dopq, who also has a Patreon account, here.
I don’t know very much about this cartoonist except for the fact that he seems to like to draw photos of burly men. His drawings range from sweet moments like the one above to more playful and sexual. Since this is Instagram there is nothing all that risqué but he can capture a mood quite effectively, allowing your imagination to wander into depictions definitely not allowed on Instagram. Dopey has more than 50,000 followers so some of you may already be aware of and following him but for the rest of you check him out.
Hopefully the caption I’ve shared below inspires you to offer up one or two of your own. Leave a funny caption as a comment for this post, and I’ll approve it for readers to enjoy.
Airline passenger traffic has dropped significantly due to the pandemic, but Jet Blue is betting that many of us in Boston will be looking to get away from the cold and will be adding new nonstop flights between Boston and Florida starting February 11, 2021.
Starting February 11th, Jet Blue will have up to four daily nonstop flights between Boston and Miami.
BOS – MIA Flight #1519
MIA – BOS Flight #1520
8:30 a.m. – 12:04 p.m.
7:20 a.m. – 10:28 a.m.
BOS – MIA Flight #1219
MIA – BOS Flight #1220
12:05 p.m. – 3:37 p.m.
12:00 p.m. – 3:08 p.m.
BOS – MIA Flight #1319
MIA – BOS Flight #1320
3:35 p.m. – 7:07 p.m.
4:25 p.m. – 7:35 p.m.
BOS – MIA Flight #1619
MIA – BOS Flight #1620
7:00 p.m. – 10:34 p.m.
7:55 p.m. – 11:03 p.m.
Starting February 11th, Jet Blue will have up to four weekly nonstop flights between Boston and Key West, flying on Thursday, Friday, Sunday and Monday. The flight times appear to be very convenient, allowing you to arrive early enough to enjoy a late lunch and getting you home to Boston at a decent hour.
JB Flight #2063 departs Boston at 8:27 a.m. and arrive in Key West at 12:14 p.m. JB Flight #2064 departs Key West at 1:02 p.m. and arrive in Boston at 4:26 p.m.
You can read the full media release issued last week here.
The title is misleading because I have not made my Mom’s cherry coffee cake, but for as long as I can remember my mother would make this Christmas morning. As a kid I loved the sweet cake for breakfast and as I got older, I appreciated it even more with a strong cup of coffee.
With Christmas now just days away, I thought I’d share this family recipe. If you enjoy baking, give this a try and let me know how it turns out.
Ingredients:
1 21oz can of cherry pie filling 1 and 1/4 cups of flour 1 cup of sugar 1/2 cup of milk 1 egg 10 tbsp of butter (melted) 1 tsp double-acting baking powder 1/4 tsp baking soda 1 tsp lemon juice 1/4 tsp salt (optional) 1 tsp vanilla extract
According to Mom, preheat your oven to 350 and grease a 9×9 baking pan.
Mix with a fork the flour, half of the total sugar (1/2 cup), baking powder, baking soda and salt (the salt will cut the sweetness so Mom often refrains from including it). Add 1/2 cup of melted butter, milk, egg and vanilla and spoon beat until all is well mixed and then pour it into your greased pan.
In a small bowl, use a fork to combine the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar, 2 heaping tablespoons of flour and the remaining melted butter until it resembles coarse crumbs. Then sprinkle half of this over the batter in the pan and stir 1 tsp of lemon juice into pie filling before sprinkling the remaining mixture over the cake.
Bake in the oven at 350⁰ for 1 hour – until top is golden brown then take it out and let it sit for about 30 minutes until it is cool enough to eat.
Fans of Steve Grand may recall this photo from his remake of “All I want for Christmas is You” that he released in 2015. To help get you in the holiday mood, you can watch the full video here. Last week he reprised this role with a remake of another holiday classic, I’ll Be Home For Christmas.
Through “The Wunderfund of Massachusetts”, Toys for Joys is shipping $1,000+ worth of toys and gifts to each and everyone of the 29 DCF (Department of Children and Family) offices. To date the organiztion has funded 22 DCF offices. THEY NEED TO RAISE $7,000 more to cover all 29 offices!
Toys for Joys aims to send gifts to EVERY foster office in Massachusetts. But they need your help.
This year, Toys for Joys has already raised enough funds to sponsor the following organizations; representing thousands of children.
Casa Iris/Multicultural AIDS Coalition (Jamaica Plain): 465 Gifts Purchased ($6,000) IBA (South End): 367 Gifts Purchased ($5,000) Eastern Service Worker’s Association (Dorchester, East Boston, Mattapan): 430 Gifts Purchased ($6,000+) Urban Farming Institute (Mattapan, Dorchester): 191 Gifts Purchased ($2,500+) Boston Housing Authority, Joseph Tierney Learning Center 313 Gifts Purchased ($6,000+) Boston Public Health Commission Homeless Shelter 22 gifts purchased ($800) St. Ann’s Home and School (Methuen): purchase pending ($2,200)
If you know of any individual or company who would like to sponsor a DCF office, please email, james@toys4joys.org. Donations can also be made through their website, www.toys4joys.org, or by sending your donation to: Toys for Joys, Inc., PO Box 315, Belmont, MA 02478.
Toys for Joys is a 501(c)3 organization, that is 100% volunteer run and all donations are 100% tax deductible. Won’t you please join me in helping this worthwhile organization?
Song Inkollo is a comic book artist of Chinese descent who is from Nantes, France. He uses his comics to share his stories, and I really enjoy his comic series “Daily Life of a Gay Couple” and recently shared his work. If you like what you see check out his Patreon site.