That’s no small mouthful to stir into a tasty and digestible morsel, visually speaking. But what’s the fun of designing something if it doesn’t come with a challenge?

Meanwhile, to jump to another topic, all five pages of "My Hypnotist" are now on view at Popimage, so the ending of the story is no longer a mystery. And with it ends Tim Fish’s long-running Young Bottoms In Love series. Thanks for masterminding a class act among web comics, Tim. It was fun being part of the ride, even if I only got to hop in for the final turn.

…So, we’re sitting there (sez Grady via email this week) and naturally the avalanche of "Brokeback Mountain" jokes came out. Somewhere in the rattle of the conversation, I heard something about [Birmingham’s iron ore-rich] Red Mountain.

So, I said, "Well, it’s really good that they didn’t set the movie on Red Mountain, because if the Christians heard that it was about a homosexual relationship between miners, they’d really blow a stink."

Well, the conversation didn’t exactly snap into silence; it rather dribbled rapidly there. The pause grew long, I smiled and looked back at my work.

It took at least two more seconds, before someone said, "I got it!" At last, it got a good laugh.

But the fun part for me was waiting for them to figure it out.

"The couples claim state health regulations defining marriage as being only between a man and a woman violate the state Constitution’s equal protection, privacy and due-process provisions," Johnson elaborates.

"In October, Peter Schiff, senior counsel with the state Attorney General’s office, argued before the appellate court that the plaintiffs wanted the courts to rewrite the definition of marriage. He said that job is best handled by the legislative branch of government.

"The court agreed.

"In our opinion, the Legislature is where the changes to marriage" should be addressed, Justice John Lahtinen wrote in the 5-0 decision."

MY COMMENT: And what are the targets of discrimination supposed to do when Legislatures themselves are the guardians of injustice?

Alabama natives like me remember when our state legislators were delighted to deny just treatment to the African-American in Bull Conner Country. Bible-based arguments abounded for why God wanted racial inequality to prevail in perpetuity, and the majority of church-going Southerners could be counted upon to support lawmakers who stuck to their guns on this point.

It took unelected judges who were insulated from voter reprisals to face squarely the fact that longstanding Southern traditions were a gross affront to America’s constitutional promise that all its citizens would be treated equally under the law. For me such "judicial activism" was inspiring during my youth. It gave the Bill of Rights real force; they were not a mere collection of platitudes on parchment.

As the right-wing packing of present-day courts proceeds apace and the ability of incensed majorities to elbow aside the aspirations of minorities resumes its standing as the norm, opportunities to be inspired by America’s promises are few and far between.

Maybe it takes personal memories of watching elected legislators running amok in the thrall of bigotry-based "traditions" for Joe Public to grasp the full chilliness of news like today’s.

Not satisfied with the foregoing star treatment, Popimage has added on re-runs of its past reviews of three of my books: Stuck Rubber Baby; Wendel All Together; and The Swimmer With a Rope In His Teeth. Thank you Tim Fish, Ed Mathews, Scott, and Benjamin Russell for treating me like royalty this week. (And thanks also to Alonso Duralde, the Arts & Entertainment Editor at The Advocate, for making sure that an advance plug for "My Hypnotist" made it into last Saturday’s edition of the magazine’s online version.)

Meanwhile my project of the moment is designing the poster for an upcoming production by the Mill City Productions, a community theatre troupe here in North Adams.One-act plays by Harold Pinter ("The Dumb Waiter"), Eugene Ionesco ("The Bald Soprano"), and Jean-Paul Sartre ("No Exit") are being combined in an evening of absurdism sure to leave all present wobbling giddily down Main Street afterwards in search of safe existential ground to stand on. I’ll show it to you once I’m finished.

"It is a very complex allegory that revolves around the difference in various people’s ability to face reality, and the fact that there is no rationale to the selection of those who have the capability."

"The play also pictures truth as lying totally in concreteness. The metaphor is metamorphosis. Manchester Wintergray is transformed to "concrete" man through moral pain and physical death."

[The ghost of Manchester Wintergray injects from his grave: Such concerns in a 22-year-old boy! And this was a year before the kid took his first LSD, for God’s sake!]

Young Cruse continues tellingly:

"I had been nervous earlier about [Drama Department Chair Arnold Powell’s] reaction because there is an undercurrent of homosexuality running through the whole thing. But as the play came out, the queer stuff is fairly stylized and functions mostly as an ever-present force under the surface; consequently, its effect tends to be subconscious rather than conscious."

Dream on, Howard! Probable response of audience-members when the play was staged the following spring: Somebody drag that poor playright out of the closet QUICK!!

Meanwhile, in the present: At Popimage.com the second page of "My Hypnotist" is unveiled.