“People are taking a more expansive view of what a family is. But for any family that doesn’t fit the 1960s Ozzie and Harriet mold, slow and steady doesn’t feel fast enough.”
–Jennifer Chrisler, executive director of the Family Equality Council, reacting to a study conducted by Indiana University sociologist Brian Powell that found that 68 percent of respondents believed that same-sex couples with children counted as “family”-up from 54 percent in 2003. Powell’s team surveyed more 2,300 people over seven years. The bad news is: as recently as 2006, 30 percent of respondents counted pets as family but not gay couples. Powell said, “The sheer idea that gay couples are given less status than pets should give us pause.”

This story out of Britain about a cat whose fur seems to spell “cat” has charmed the human world, but the animal kingdom is less than impressed. Asked for comment, Awl cat Cat the Cat noted, “It’s like wearing a band’s t-shirt to the live show. Fuckin’ amateur.” More on this amazing event as it develops.

“Although they’re called Fudd’s Exotics, this elk burger tasted familiar, like something out of an unsatistfying childhood barbecue, with frozen patties charred to disfigurement by lazy grill-minders who live by the (plainly false) maxim that anything tastes good with enough barbecue sauce. The bun was delicious, but that’s sort of like complimenting a salad for its croutons or drafting a baseball player based on the way he wears his hat. This burger actually made me angry as I ate it — angry at Fuddruckers for serving me such a horrible product, and angry at myself for nonetheless being hungry enough to eat the entire thing (plus two cups of cream soda).” [Via]

After taking 2009 off, The Eight Nights Of Hanukkah with Yo La Tengo returns to Maxwell’s for this year’s Festival Of Lights, which takes place from December 1–8. Profits from the $30 tickets go to charity, and if years past are any indication, each show will be laden with excellent surprise guests and other goodies. Tickets to all eight nights go on sale at noon ET today — yes, that’s really soon! — and will probably sell out quickly.

Awl pal Tim Sutton has directed a short film of Justin Townes Earle drinking in a bar, going back to his apartment and playing a song from his new album Harlem River Blues. Earle, 28, is the son of the great Texas singer/songwriter Steve Earle and, clearly, writes some very pretty music himself.

“You don’t gain any wisdom as the years go by. You fall apart, is what happens. People try and put a nice varnish on it, and say, well, you mellow. You come to understand life and accept things. But you’d trade all of that for being 35 again.”
-Way to BRING ME DOWN, Woody Allen! If I live long enough some day I will be nostalgic for now? DO NOT WANT. I’m gonna have to increase my nonfitness regimen.

Even if you do not share my obsession with bears you should absolutely check out this photogallery “of a female brown bear doing her morning stretches.” The pictures are amazing. (Unrelated: It is depressing that I am much less flexible than a caged animal.) I can’t tell from the captions if Meta Penca is a professional photographer or just someone who happened to be at the zoo with a camera, but either way these are terrific shots. Additional credit goes to the folks at the Guardian for resisting the obvious “Yogi Bear” pun.

New York City has negotiated a deal with Time Warner Cable and Cablevision where the cable companies will have to pay if appointments aren’t kept, with the refunds equaling up to the cost of a month’s bill until 2012, when Verizon FiOS (and its way superior on-demand offerings — hello, Come Dine With Me!) arrive in the city. (At that point the refund maximum drops to $25.) I suspect that there will be more than a few people who are just bored/underemployed/cheap enough to serial scheduling service appointments in hopes of catching this windfall — stopwatches at the ready, praying for a traffic jam or some other calamity that will allow them to get their porn n’ Disney for free. (Image via)

Look, the fact is that you’re going to see this video somewhere in the next day or so, so it may as well be here. I’m not sure what gay hipster fight, “filmed outside of a club called rhondas at el cid in los angeles (silverlake) around 4am,” says about the ever-expanding nature of the YouTube fight video genre, but I would like to point out that the comment, “I used to have this fight on vinyl,” represents YouTube fight video criticism at its most elegant and succinct. Please enjoy. Or recoil, that’s also an option.

“An article last Wednesday about the opening of tiki-themed restaurants in New York misspelled the name of a dish that will be served at Lani Kai. It is kalua pork sliders, not Kahlúa pork sliders.” Too late! The kids from Torrisi Italian are probably hard at work on this by now.