Phyllis Siegel, 76, right, kisses her wife Connie Kopelov, 84, after exchanging vows at the Manhattan City Clerk’s office with New York City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn in attendance, back left.  Siegel and Kopelov have been partners for more than 20 years, and had the honor of being the first gay couple married in Manhattan on the first day New York State’s Marriage Equality Act went into effect.

[AP]

Jonathan Ross does a great job, as usual – and she looked great without the pouffed-up hair:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1iu52L9mUk

Title: “Unlikely Friendships: 47 Remarkable Stories from the Animal Kingdom”

Author: Jennifer Holland

Rank: 68

Blurb: “Unlikely Friendships documents one heartwarming tale after another of animals who, with nothing else in common, bond in the most unexpected ways. A cat and a bird. A mare and a fawn. An elephant and a sheep. A snake and a hamster.”

Review: “I have to say that this may not be a book for sensitive children. One story is about a lioness who (unbelievably) adopts a baby Oryx, caring for it as if it were her own cub. As she is resting, weak with starvation from refusing to leave it, the Oryx wanders off, when a male lion ‘snatched it up’. She ‘sniffed the blood of her baby in the grass’ and helplessly watched the male ‘devour it’.”

Customers Also Bought: “The Steal: A Cultural History of Shoplifting”, by Rachel Shteir

Footnote: Tell us the one about the scorpion and the frog.

Unlikely Friendships [Fuck Amazon]

With all this death, default, and debt ceiling news, I need a little balm for my soul.  How about Dalmatian puppies?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70RkO1MZ0uY

[Holy Cuteness]

Oregon Congressman David Wu (D), already under fire for behavior that one could generously describe as “erratic,” is now in a smoking pile of dog shit.  The Portland Oregonian is reporting that earlier this year, the high school aged daughter of one of his friends and campaign donors contacted his office and accused him of sexually assaulting her over Thanksgiving weekend at a family event.  When confronted by his staff, he said it was a consensual sexual encounter.  Sort of like the one in 1976 where he was disciplined by Stanford University for trying to rape his ex-girlfriend?

According to sources, the young woman did not contact police because she felt that there was not enough evidence of an assault, and it was her word against a seven-term Congressman.  Frankly, if I were in the jury, that would make her all the more believable.

[Oregonian]

Amy Winehouse found dead in her London home [LAT]

With the country on the brink of default and the world on the brink of collapse, The Preznit of These United States stepped to the podium yesterday afternoon to answer queries from the elite of Our Exceptional Nation’s Press Corps. AP White House correspondent Ben Feller showed why our reporters are the envy of the world by immediately drilling to the heart of the issue:

You said you want the leaders back here at 11 a.m. to give you an answer about the path forward. What is your answer about the path forward? What path do you prefer, given what’s just happened?

Aptly put, Brother Feller. Set the spin aside and get The Preznit on the record about his own priori—

Wait — you’re not done?

And also, sir, quickly, what does this say about your relationship with Speaker Boehner?

Ah. Well. Our mistake. We mistook you for a journalist. Never mind.

July 22 Press Conference [White House]