Eureka Springs City Clerk MJ Sell issued the 100th Domestic Partnership Registry (DPR) certificate on Friday, August 24th. The happy 100th couple from North Little Rock, AR joined partners from 11 states* who have added their names to the DPR since the registry opened on June 22.

We've been waiting to report this milestone because we wanted to see if the total collapse of civilization predicted by DPR opponents would materialize.

Sure enough, a judge in Iowa suddenly decided that gays and lesbians are American citizens who are equally deserving of civil rights. Americans belatedly realized that loudly-homophobic politicians solicit gay sex in public restrooms. (Right. We know. Surprise, surprise.)

Republican presidential candidates fought these bold assaults on traditional values with a blizzard of press releases about their support for traditional marriage--particularly the brand of traditional marriage that involves adultery, and replacing your «one woman» with a younger, richer, more telegenic, more politically useful model before your other «one woman» knows what hit her.

The Arkansas Legislature acted swiftly to support traditional marriage too--by extending marriage rights to heterosexual infants and toddlers. (Though this act has been the subject of plenty of jokes and puzzled commentary, we must remind you--at least the Arkansas Legislature kept their wits about them long enough to ensure that homosexual Arkansas toddlers are still unable to marry.)

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My father and I are in Branson to see my brother and his wife, and to celebrate my father's 86th birthday. They tell us an old friend from New Jersey will be joining us for part of the weekend—a guy named Joe.

They have told me about Joe in the past. He's a great big Italian my brother worked with for a time in New Jersey. They've stayed in touch over the years, seeing each other and respective families a couple of times a year. My father has met Joe also and speaks highly of him.

Maybe I've watched too many Godfather movies, or have preconceived notions of what New Jersey Italians are like. I picture a guy with no neck, a broken nose, and an accent thicker than San Francisco fog. He's GOT to look like someone right out of the Sopranos.

They've told me that Joe is VERY Italian, VERY Catholic, talks fast, and, indeed, has an accent. He's also just a big ol' Teddy bear with a sweet disposition. Turns out they were right. Joe's about 6'1», weighs probably 275 pounds, and seems to be a very nice man. I was right too. He looks like he just stepped off of a Godfather movie set. But he DOES have a neck. At least I think I saw one.

Joe has three children; Tony, 18 years old, Mike, 15 years old, and Michelle, 13 years old. He brought Son Mike with him for the weekend. My brother and I meet Joe and Mike at Waxy O'Shea's for a drink Saturday afternoon. They have Black and Tans. I have a sissy Budweiser.

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Hi from Eureka Springs, Arkansas--the funkiest little town in America and perhaps the entire world!

This place has so much character--and so many characters--I can't believe it took me 40 years to discover it. A mere village of just 2,000 people, Eureka Springs is New Orleans meets Aspen meets San Francisco meets Hooterville! I got here two weeks ago today, and I'm here for good!

So how did this Houston-based journalist end up in the alternate universe that is Eureka Springs? After spending the first week of July at the Rainbow Gathering, camped out with 5,000 hippies and freaks of every stripe in the gorgeous Ozark National Forest of Arkansas, my two traveling companions and I descended on Eureka Springs, just an hour's drive to the north, to come down from our Rainbow experience.

Somebody had told me that the town had a writers' colony, so we found it, chatted up a young Israeli writer in residence, and when I got home, I went to the colony's website and filled out the online application. I was accepted, and not even two months later, here I am. I'll be at the writers' colony through November and then plan to find a place here to live.

When we first arrived here in Eureka Springs after the Rainbow Gathering, we checked into the Matterhorn, a 33-room, $50-a-night motel with posters everywhere depicting the Matterhorn, the famous Swiss mountain peak, but the architecture more resembles a Bavarian farmhouse than a Swiss Chalet. The town has given itself numerous hokey nicknames over the years, not unusual for a town built around tourism, and the most absurd of all is «Little Switzerland.» No ski slopes here in the Ozarks--at just 1,200 feet, the area rarely sees more than a few snowfalls each winter--and of course it is no tax haven for the wealthy… Nope, it's not alpine here in the least, and the town's zany political landscape could hardly be called neutral. (There IS good chocolate here, including a famous fudge shop called «Two Dumb Dames.»)

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In less than two weeks many Eureka Springs' artists will hit the road and venture into nearby Benton County to participate in the Pinnacle Hills Promenade Art Festival, Sept 7th and 8th.

Produced by the Eureka Springs Artist Registry and Stiel Direct LLC, the festival is a juried show and sale featuring outside displays in the Pinnacle Hills Promenade Mall in Rogers.

Although there will be exhibiting artists from many areas of the country, the majority are from Eureka Springs.

Included in the lineup will be Cynthia Kresse, Denise Ryan, Larry Mansker, Mel Shipley, and the rarely seen Max Elbo!

A former Eureka resident now living in Fayetteville, nationally prominent sculptor Hank Kaminsky, will also be exhibiting. This will not be your ordinary arts and crafts show!

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My father is 86 years old this month. He?'s in remarkably good shape for a man his age. He'?s always looked much younger than he is ? still as slender as he was in college, has all his teeth, beautiful thick salt-and-pepper hair, and his choice of widow women, if he wanted them.

He doesn't.

My mother died 14 years ago. Dad has been taking care of the house and living alone since. Taking care of the house except for cleaning, that is; 51 years of marriage to The Cleanest Woman On Earth had no effect on his inability to wipe the kitchen counter or vacuum the carpet.

I like the old boy. Much more now than when I was 18. That?s typical of the parent/child dynamic, I would imagine. I take food to him almost every week and we gab for a while.

I'?m no cook, but dad'?s culinary expertise is limited to Jell-O (with sliced bananas if he wants to be fancy, or with Mandarin oranges if he has company) and what he calls spaghetti sauce.

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Iris and Rick Feutz own and operate two outstanding galleries in Eureka Springs. Both galleries exclusively feature American art that includes work by many local artists.

Ten years ago the couple relocated From Maryland and opened Iris in the Park on the ground level of the Basin Park Hotel, #8 Spring Street.

The Serendipity Gallery is two years old and can be found on the main floor of the historic Crescent Hotel at 75 Prospect.

Iris At the Basin Park was honored as one of the top 100 craft galleries in the United States in 2005 by the Niche magazine. It represents works by 140 artists while the Serendipity showcases 100 artisans. Two local artists represented in the galleries are Deborah Womack and Julie Kahn.

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I haven?t been to a movie in quite a while. I like movies, I just don?t go much any more in my old age. I prefer to rent them and watch in the privacy of the not-so-great room at Hell?s Half Acre. Some movies lose a lot in the transfer from large screen to small, but the popcorn is cheaper at home. I don?t have to listen to people cough and babies cry, and I can mash the little ?pause? button whenever I want. So I generally avoid theaters.

I did go to see ?Brokeback Mountain? in the theater. (I had to in order to keep my Homosexual Agenda membership card.) That was the last movie I?'ve seen in a theater.

The other day I was thinking about the first time I ever went to a theater. I couldn'?t have been more than 5 or 6 years old. My mother took me to downtown Kansas City, on the streetcar, to the picture show. Yes, I?'m old. Back then they were ?picture shows?, ? at least in my family, ? and Kansas City still had streetcars.

The movie was ?Say One for Me?, starring Bing Crosby, Robert Wagner and ??? some woman. (At that age, women were interchangeable to me except for my mom and my grandmothers.)

I don?t remember much about the movie. I think Bing Crosby was a priest but wouldn?'t bet on it. I was more excited about traveling on a streetcar to The Big City than to care about what picture show it was. This was a rare treat.

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Tentatively, gay businesses launch effort to form gay (or not) business guild

By the time Eureka Springs Mayor Dani Wilson arrived, a few minutes into the first meeting of what may turn out to be an association of gay-owned and gay-friendly businesses, the only seat remaining for Her Honor was a commodious windowsill.

Wednesday night's inaugural meeting drew a standing-room-only crowd of more than 30 individuals representing at least 20 of the city's approximately 50 gay-owned businesses--and at least one gay-friendly enterprise.

«I think what you're doing is wonderful and it's long overdue,» said Wilson. «So, get out there and show them you're a force to be recognized.»

Though substantially larger than anticipated by organizers Harold Ellis and Rob Wagner, the group will need all the encouragement it can get considering the task it has set for itself--joining forces to attract to Eureka Springs more gay (and gay-friendly and straight) tourists.

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The propagandist never asks «Why?» He needs no justification, but rather only this granite faith. -- August Eigruber

In tonight's episode of Al Watch, we discover that the American Family Association, the radical, right wing organization that, called for a nationwide boycott of Eureka Springs, is making a documentary about our fair city.

As Disciple Jean Merritt explains in the Patriots' Herald,

Jeff Johnson, producer and reporter for the organization based in Tupelo, Miss., said they became interested in Eureka Springs when they were contacted by many of their constituents when news of the Domestic Partnership Registry (DPR) came out. He explained they are a news service separate from the activist division of the American Family Association, and just want to tell the story of what happened. He said the truth needs to be told and let the people make an informed choice.

Merritt further explains the AFA's idea of an «informed choice» as an opportunity for people to to view, «a plea not to abandon Eureka Springs, and not to let the Passion Play die as punishment for what the city council has done.»

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Henry David Thoreau (an enduring question mark in gay history) had his Walden Pond and Eureka Springs has its Lake Lucerne, a modest crescent-shaped lake cradled by forested mountains with a Victorian-era dam of hand-hewn native limestone at one end. And on the north side of the lake, barely visible through the oaks, cedars, redbuds and dogwoods lining the shore, stands a Hansel & Gretel cottage known as Autumn Moon.

«I have, as it were, my own sun and moon and stars,» wrote Thoreau of Walden, «and a little world all to myself.» For seekers of solitude and lovers of nature, Autumn Moon Cottage offers many of the same amenities--a placid lake to fish in, wooded trails to wander, wildlife--including deer, waterfowl and the occasional fox--and soul-soothing peace and tranquility.

And all of it a mere two miles from downtown Eureka Springs.

The cottage itself is both cozy and capacious, with 1200 square feet of space on two floors, including a full kitchen, a living room with a hearth-warming fireplace and an indulgent two-person indoor whirlpool tub overlooking the lake.

In the morning, while still in your bathrobe, you can have cafe au lait on the deck while he sun comes up over the lake and the mountain on the opposite shore. As the sun goes down, a floating, Victorian-style gazebo is a perfect spot for Bloody Mary's or margaritas. The gazebo is also a favorite spot for commitment ceremonies and weddings. Both at the gazebo and the cottage's front door, a gaggle of white geese and an assortment of ducks will be waiting for handouts.

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