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Carleton Carpenter as flamboyantly gay photographer Russell Paxton tells Ann Sothern (as Liza Elliot) and Luella Gear (as Maggie Grant) all about the gorgeous male model he has in his studio in the television adaptation of Kurt Weill's Lady in the Dark, originally broadcast by NBC on September 25th, 1954. This was a very early example of lgbtq+ representation in mainstream media and Carleton's over-the-top portrayal of the character was daring for the era, leaving viewers with no other option than to accept that his character was gay---not "ambivalent 1950s, is he or isn't he?" gay, but in your face "I lust over men, tra-la-la-la-la-la! I don't care if you like it or not" gay. Carleton, who was openly bisexual, clearly ran with the part, camping it up and having fun while imbuing the character with the freedom he gave himself in his personal life during the buttoned-down 1950s.

Born in Bennington, Vermont in 1926, Carleton caught the acting bug early after serving as a Seabee in the U.S. Navy during World War II (where he fell in love for the first time with a fellow Seabee named Costello, a relationship which was emotionally intense but never consummated). Arriving in New York City in January of 1944, Carleton soon after scored a part in the David Merrick Broadway play Bright Boy. Instantly grabbing attention in the opening scene when he walked out wearing nothing but boxer shorts with a towel around his neck and stepped across a bunch of beds to look out a window, his long legs carrying his lanky six-foot-three frame across the stage like an Olympic sprinter caught everyone's eyes. Garnering laughs from the audience, his good looks also earned him both male and female admirers, with one wealthy older bachelor offering to pay his way through college. "He kept calling backstage," Carleton later recalled with a laugh. "All the guys would group around and say, 'Your old guy that wants to send you to college is on the phone!' One of them said, 'Well, that's what you get for coming onstage with nothing on but your shorts and a towel around your neck when the curtain goes up!'" Unbothered by the attention, Carpenter (nick-named "Carp") was fully aware that he liked both women and men and already had experience with both under his belt. "I slept with as many women as I did men, I guess," he stated in a 2017 interview with Matthew Rettenmund for the Boy Culture website, adding with a laugh, "I really didn't keep count." Entirely comfortable with who he was, Carleton never attempted to hide his bisexuality. When asked if he ever worried that being open about it would hurt his career, he breezily replied: "Never crossed my mind."

Working in early TV shows, modeling for magazines, and cast in a number of Broadway plays in the late-1940s after the success of Bright Boy, Carp was surprised one night when a famous screen star made a visit to his backstage dressing room. "I was taking my wig off and somebody knocked and there stood Cary Grant! My feet wouldn't move. He's saying how much he enjoyed me in the show and going on and all I could say was 'thank you'. He climbed three flights of stairs and I'm waving my wig at him. He said he would like to take me out and buy me a drink. In the meantime, I'm looking over at my rotten jeans on my dressing table and I thought, 'My God.' And I did have a date. I wanted to tell him I had a date but maybe all three of us could go out, but as soon as he heard the word 'date,' the door slowly began to close and he was gone. I've thought about maybe he wanted a piece of ass — he might very well have. He was a gentleman's man as well as a ladies' man."

Carleton was brought to Los Angeles by producer Louis de Rochemont to play a supporting role in the movie Lost Boundaries in 1949. Signed by MGM shortly afterwards, he made a splash singing the novelty song Aba-Daba Honeymoon with Debbie Reynolds in the musical Two Weeks with Love in 1950, a song which Carlton sneakily introduced to the film's producer and which earned a gold record for the pair when it reached number three on the Billboard charts in 1951. Among his eight films for MGM, one of his leading roles was starring in the 1952 Stanley Donen comedy Fearless Fagan opposite Janet Leigh. Based on a true story, Carleton played a young man who raised a lion cub and tried to hide the full-grown lion on a military base after he was drafted into the army. He also starred with Jan Sterling in the 1952 MGM western Sky Full of Moon as a cowboy named "Tumbleweed" who arrives in Las Vegas and gets caught up in the world of gambling.

After leaving MGM in 1953, Carp continued working in stage, television, and radio productions. He also established himself as a successful songwriter, composing the numbers Christmas Eve, I Wouldn't Mind, Ev'ry Other Day, Cabin In the Woods, A Little Love, and Come Away in addition to writing special material for Marlene Dietrich, Kaye Ballard, Hermione Gingold, and his pal Debbie Reynolds. Remaining lifelong friends with Debbie, he attended events with Reynolds and her children Carrie and Todd after her divorce from singer Eddie Fisher in 1959, and Debbie presented Carleton with his lifetime achievement award from the Hollywood film organization Cinecon in 2012, joking with him onstage by saying: "You know, you and I are gonna be singin' Aba-Daba Honeymoon when we're both a hundred years old!" Devastated by her passing in 2016, he later said: "It was awful. I had over a hundred messages on my machine when I got home, and I was very sick."

During the 1960s and 1970s, Carleton continued to work on stage and in films, appearing in the groundbreaking lgbtq+ play The Boys in the Band in 1968, and starring as "Miss Untouchable" opposite Rue McClanahan, Fannie Flagg, and transgender actress Candy Darling in the gay-themed movie Some of My Best Friends Are... in 1971. He also became a successful author in the 1970s and 1980s, writing the popular mystery novels Deadhead, Games Murderers Play, Cat Got Your Tongue?, Only Her Hairdresser Knew, Sleight of Deadly Hand, The Peabody Experience, and Stumped. His last work as an actor was in a play in 2015, and he published his autobiography The Absolute Joy of Work: From Vermont to Broadway, Hollywood and Damn Near 'Round the World the following year. Remaining healthy and active into his 90s, Carleton passed away peacefully of natural causes at his home in Warwick, New York on January 31st, 2022 at the age of 95. "I just loved the work, honey," he stated about his long and varied career near the end of his life. "That was always the thing with me — I didn’t care anything about all of the glop that went with stardom."

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giant redwood trees really are so cool, they just have something incredibly special going on. it's hard to describe if you haven't seen them

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Working in tech be like

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Let’s be real. His expense reports are widely known to be like this.

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oh no i've had a Thought

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gotta appreciate his honesty

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so true

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Campaign set in a digital world and Task Manager is The God (and patron god) of Death

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I need y'all to watch this clip

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Sam Reid as Father Ignatius in LAMBS OF GOD 1.01 “The Devil into Paradise”

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View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Andi van Dyke (@andivandyke)

Frankly I'm shocked I ran across this outside of Tumblr first.

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I want to be the first person on the moon to shoot a sniper rifle at earth and hit a wasp nest.  my whole life so far is leading up to that moment

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For all of the northerners that stood up for Texas during our freeze and said, "Don't make fun of them, they've never dealt with this before. Their infrastructure isn't made for snow and freezing."

This one is for you.

Where I live 108°F with 80% humidity with no wind is normal.

Pacific North West is dealing historic best waves 35-40°C or 95-105°F.

First of all. Don't make fun of them for bitching about the heat. Just like Texas isn't built for a freeze and our pipes burst, Pacific North West isn't built for heat and a lot of their homes don't have AC.

If you live somewhere with a high humidity like 80+ HUMIDITY IS NOT YOUR FRIEND. The "humidity makes it feel cooler" is a lie once it gets beyond a point.

If you live somewhere with a lower humidity, misters are nice to cool off outside.

Once you get over 90°F (32°C) a fan will not help you. It's just pushing around hot air. (I mean if you can't afford a small AC unit because they're expensive as hell, by all means a fan is better than nothing).

If you have pets, those portable AC units aren't safe. If your pets destroy the outtake thing, it'll leak CO2. Window units are safer.

Window AC units will let mosquitoes or other small bugs in. Sucks, but that's life.

Now is not the time to me modest. If you have to cover for religious reasons, by all means. If you don't, I've seen people wear short shorts and a swim top. It's not trashy if it keeps you from getting heat stroke.

If you do have to cover up for religious reasons, look for elephant pants or something similar. They're made with a breathable material.

Shade is better than no shade, but that shit it just diet sun after some point. Don't think shade will save you from heat stroke.

I know the "drink your water" is a fun meme now, but if you're sweating excessively you need electrolytes. Drink Gatorade, Powerade, or Pedialite PLEASE. I don't care if you're fucking sitting in one spot all day. That shit WILL save you from heat stroke.

Most importantly. RESEARCH THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HEAT STROKE AND HEAT EXHAUSTION PLEASE!

If you're diabetic and can't drink Gatorade, mix water, fruit juice, and either lite salt or pink salt

If you can afford it, cover windows with thick curtains to insulate the house

If you have tile floors, lay on them with skin to tile contact. If you don't, laying your head on cool counters works too.

If the temperature where you're at is hotter than your body temperature, don't wear heat wicking clothing. Moisture wicking is safe though.

Check your medication labels. Many make you more susceptible to sun and heat

-Room temperature water will get into your body faster. This is something I learned doing marching band in high summer in Georgia, and it saved all of our asses. Sip it, don't gulp it, especially if you're getting into the red; same goes for whatever fluid you're drinking. And just in general drink during the day.

-If you are moving from an air conditioned space to an un-air conditioned space, if at all possible try to make the shift gradual. When my dad and I were working outside and in un-ac houses a few years ago, he'd turn the air down to low in the truck about ten-fifteen minutes before we got where we were going. This way your body doesn't go from low low temps to high temps. S'bad for you.

-If you can, keep your lights off during the day. Light bulbs may not generate a lot of heat, but the difference is noticeable when it gets hot enough. I literally only turn my bedroom light on in the evening when it gets too dark.

Don't be afraid to just like... pour water on yourself if you need to. The evaporation will cool you off.

Put your hand to the cement for 15 seconds. If you can't handle the heat, it'll burn your dog's paws. Don't let them walk on it.

Dogs with flat faces are more prone to heat stroke. Don't leave them out unsupervised.

Frozen fruit is delicious in water.

Wet/Cold hat/handkerchief on your head/neck will help you stay cool.

Pickle juice is great for electrolytes! You can even make pickle juice Popsicles!

Heat exhaustion is more, "drink water and get you cooled off." Heat stroke is more "Oh my god call 911."

Image Description provided by @loveize

[Image description: an infographic showing the difference between heat exhaustion and heat stroke. The graphic is labeled "Heat Dangers: First Warning." Signs of heat exhaustion: faint or dizzy, excessive sweating, cool, pale, clammy skin, rapid, weak pulse, muscle cramps. If you think you or someone else may be experiencing heat exhaustion, get to a cool, air-conditioned place, drink water if conscious, and take a cool shower or use cold compress. Signs of heat stroke: throbbing headache, no sweating, red, hot, dry skin, rapid, strong pulse, may lose consciousness. If you think you or someone else may be experiencing heat stroke, call 911. End description]

Be safe.

-fae

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Hey...so...if you have time would you mind linking the documentary? Because that sounds like an interesting watch (especially since I *vaguely* knew about that happening, but none of the details).

That mood when you spend 7 hours researching medieval ships and fishing nets and end up watching an hour long documentary about Iceland telling British fishing ships to fuck off and expanded their territorial fishing waters during the 1970's to protect cod stocks.

I can't believe people almost really escalated to armed conflict over cod IRL, but actually yes I can scratch that.

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oh also? An absolutely freaky thing I'm seeing yt leftists do?

STOP TRYING TO TRACK DOWN PROTESTORS THAT DO 'BADASS STUFF'. STOP POSTING ABOUT IT ONLINE.

PEOPLE FUCKING DIE.

AND IT'S USUALLY SOMEONE MELANATED.

THE GOVERNMENT IS WATCHING YOU FUCKING DUMBASS.

y'all are so stuck on egoistic heroism that every time someone does something 'sick' at a protest you wanna turn them in to the next celebrity to have a parasocial relationship with and then they go missing.

Tf is wrong w y'all.

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I have some news for members of the united states armed forces who feel like they are pawns in a political game and their assignments being unnecessary.