AdamSmith

Hepatitis C, a Silent Killer, Meets Its Match By ANDREW POLLACK Published: November 4, 2013 The New York Times Determined to get rid of the hepatitis C infection that was slowly destroying his liver, Arthur Rubens tried one experimental treatment after another. None worked, and most brought side effects, like fever, insomnia, depression, anemia and a rash that “felt like your skin was on fire.” But this year, Dr. Rubens, a professor of management at Florida Gulf Coast University, entered a clinical trial testing a new pill against hepatitis C. Taking it was “a piece of cake.” And after three months of treatment, the virus was cleared from his body at last. “I had a birthday in September,” Dr. Rubens, 63, said. “I told my wife I don’t want anything. It would take away from the magnitude of this gift.” Medicine may be on the brink of an enormous public health achievement: turning the tide against hepatitis C, a silent plague that kills more Americans annually than AIDS and is the leading cause of liver transplants. If the effort succeeds, it will be an unusual conquest of a viral epidemic without using a vaccine. “There is no doubt we are on the verge of wiping out hepatitis C,” said Dr. Mitchell L. Shiffman, the director of the Bon Secours Liver Institute of Virginia and a consultant to many drug companies. Over the next three years, starting within the next few weeks, new drugs are expected to come to market that will cure most patients with the virus, in some cases with a once-a-day pill taken for as little as eight weeks, and with only minimal side effects. That would be a vast improvement over current therapies, which cure about 70 percent of newly treated patients but require six to 12 months of injections that can bring horrible side effects. The latest data on the experimental drugs is being presented at The Liver Meeting in Washington, which ends Tuesday. But the new drugs are expected to cost from $60,000 to more than $100,000 for a course of treatment. Access could be a problem, particularly for the uninsured and in developing countries. Even if discounts or generic drugs are offered to poor countries, there are no international agencies or charities that buy hepatitis C medications, as there are for H.I.V. and malaria drugs. And some critics worry that the bill will be run up when huge numbers of people who would have done fine without them turn to the drugs. That is because many people infected with hepatitis C never suffer serious liver problems. “The vast majority of patients who are infected with this virus never have any trouble,” said Dr. Ronald Koretz, emeritus professor of clinical medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. It is impossible to tell in advance whether an infected individual will go on to suffer serious consequences. For patients who can afford them, the temptation to take the new drugs before trouble arises will be powerful. A Heavy Toll An estimated three to four million Americans are infected with hepatitis C, and about 150 million worldwide — three to five times the number who have H.I.V. Most people who are infected do not know it, because it can take decades for the virus to damage the liver sufficiently to cause symptoms. In the United States, the number of new infections has fallen to about 17,000 a year, from more than 200,000 per year in the 1980s, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There has been a recent rise in cases among young people who inject pain medicines or heroin. About 16,600 Americans had hepatitis C listed as a cause of death on death certificates in 2010, though that might vastly understate the mortality linked to the disease, according to the C.D.C. Although there are fewer new infections, the number of deaths is expected to keep rising as the infections incurred years ago increasingly take their toll. Hepatitis C is spread mainly by the sharing of needles, though it can also be acquired during sex. The virus was transmitted through blood transfusions before testing of donated blood began in 1992. Dr. Rubens, the recently cured patient, believes he was infected when he worked as a paramedic long ago. The main treatment has been interferon alfa, given in weekly injections for 24 or 48 weeks, combined with daily tablets of ribavirin. Neither drug was developed specifically to treat hepatitis C. The combination cures about half the patients, but the side effects — flulike symptoms, anemia and depression — can be brutal. The new drugs, by contrast, are specifically designed to inhibit the enzymes the hepatitis C virus uses to replicate, the same approach used to control H.I.V. As with H.I.V., two or more hepatitis C drugs will be used together to prevent the virus from developing resistance. One big difference is that H.I.V. forms a latent reservoir in the body, so H.I.V. drugs must be taken for life to prevent the virus from springing back. Hepatitis C does not form such a reservoir, so it can be eliminated permanently. If no virus is detectable in the blood 12 weeks after treatment ends — a measure known as a sustained virologic response — there is almost no chance the virus will come back and the patient is considered essentially cured. The damaged liver can then heal itself somewhat, doctors say. Yet even if the virus is cleared, people who were once infected may still have an increased risk of liver cancer, especially if cirrhosis, a scarring of the liver, has set in. The new drugs now moving to market can achieve sustained viral responses in 80 to 100 percent of patients with treatment durations of 12 to 24 weeks, possibly shorter. For Tom Espinosa, a building inspector in Oakland, Calif., the new treatments cannot arrive fast enough. Mr. Espinosa, 59, has advanced cirrhosis and some spots on his liver that might be cancer. He is so fatigued that he spends all weekend in bed. He has tried all available treatments and nothing worked, making him envious of other patients who were cured. “I became resentful for a little while, but I got over it,” he said. With time possibly running out, he plans to try the first new drug to hit the market. To be sure, many of the new drug combinations have not been extensively tested yet. Side effects might still show up. And the drugs are not expected to work as well for patients with severe cirrhosis or those co-infected with H.I.V. Tom Espinosa, of Oakland, Calif., is eagerly awaiting the new hepatitis C drugs. He has advanced cirrhosis and spots on his liver that might be cancer. “I just don’t think we know the answer until we get more widespread clinical experience,” said Charles M. Rice, a hepatitis C expert at Rockefeller University. “We may be in for some surprises still.” New Direction Researchers and patients have been disappointed before, when the first two direct-acting antiviral pills, telaprevir and boceprevir, reached the market in 2011. The drugs, which inhibited the virus’s protease enzyme, still required interferon and ribavirin, but they raised the cure rate to about 70 percent. There was a huge rush to treatment. But doctors now say that side effects were worse than expected, in part because the sickest patients had been excluded from the clinical trials of the drugs. “A lot of that didn’t come to light until after the drugs were approved,” said Dr. Brian R. Edlin, an associate professor of public health and medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. “Then it turns out they were just horrible.” Among the new drugs, the one garnering the most excitement is sofosbuvir, from Gilead Sciences, which is expected to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration by Dec. 8. It inhibits the virus’s polymerase enzyme, which builds new genomes out of RNA so the virus can replicate. Sofosbuvir is an evil decoy of sorts. It looks like a building block of RNA. But once it is mistakenly incorporated into the RNA chain, the chain cannot grow and the virus cannot reproduce. The effectiveness of the new drugs can vary depending on which strain of hepatitis C, known as genotypes, the patient has. People infected with hepatitis C genotypes 2 and 3 — which account for 20 to 25 percent of cases in the United States — will take sofosbuvir with ribavirin but without interferon, making this the first all-oral treatment for hepatitis C. Treatment for genotype 2 will be 12 weeks, but for genotype 3 it will probably be 24 weeks. Genotype 1, which accounts for more than 70 percent of patients in the United States, will still require interferon and ribavirin along with sofosbuvir, but only for 12 weeks. In a clinical trial, about 90 percent of previously untreated patients taking this combination achieved a sustained virologic response. The combination is expected to be somewhat less effective in those for whom previous treatments did not work. Gilead hopes to have an all-oral treatment for genotype 1 approved by the end of 2014. It would be a once-a-day pill containing both sofosbuvir and another experimental Gilead drug, ledipasvir. This combination, used along with ribavirin, is what cured Dr. Rubens. Other companies, including AbbVie, Merck and Bristol-Myers Squibb, are in a heated race to also bring all-oral combinations to market in the next two years or so. Liver specialists will be able to put together an all-oral regimen for genotype 1 very soon, however, by prescribing both sofosbuvir and simeprevir, a Johnson & Johnson protease inhibitor that is expected to win approval soon. One study has shown this combination to be extremely effective, though insurers may balk at paying for two expensive drugs. Awaiting Better Options These new drugs are likely to alter the calculus about who gets treated and when. Many doctors are now “warehousing” their hepatitis C patients — urging them to forgo treatment until the new drugs are approved. “There’s no way I’m going to put them on an interferon regimen when we’re a year away from having interferon-free regimens,” said Dr. Scott Friedman, the chief of liver diseases at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “It’s rare you have to pull the trigger and get them on treatment in that period of time.” Gilead estimates that only 58,000 Americans with hepatitis C are now undergoing treatment, a small fraction even of those who know they are infected. Wanting to avoid interferon’s side effects, some patients without symptoms try to monitor their liver and start treatment only if it shows signs of deterioration. But with the new more tolerable treatments, some experts say, it makes sense to treat early-stage disease to prevent cirrhosis and the accompanying risk of liver cancer. And it is likely that more pre-symptomatic patients will be found through wider screening. Both the United States Preventive Services Task Force and the C.D.C. have recently begun to recommend that all baby boomers — people born from 1946 to 1964 — be tested for infection with hepatitis C, since they represent about three quarters of all cases. “It will be test and treat,” said Dr. Eugene Schiff, the director of the liver diseases center at the University of Miami, who is a consultant to drug companies. Pharmaceutical companies, of course, have a financial interest in seeing that more people get screened and treated, and they have been providing support for hepatitis C awareness campaigns and sponsoring studies on the benefits of screening and treatment. The all-oral regimens also may make it more feasible to treat the people who are most likely to spread the virus — intravenous drug users, the homeless and prison inmates, many of whom also have mental health problems. “I can’t treat an unstable patient safely with interferon,” said Dr. Diana Sylvestre, who runs a clinic in Oakland, Calif. that treats illicit drug users and former users. “But I can sure as hell give them a few pills.” http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/05/health/hepatitis-c-a-silent-killer-meets-its-match.html?ref=health?src=dayp&_r=0

I admit I'm a hypochondriac, but I take a placebo for it.

Ender's Game sequel no longer likely after unspectacular US box office http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/nov/05/enders-game-sequel-harrison-ford-not-likely

The absence of a Food Porn section is thrown into high relief.

November 4th, 2013 08:40 AM ET Maine gubernatorial candidate comes out as gay Posted by CNN's Ashley Killough (CNN) – Democratic gubernatorial hopeful and U.S. Representative Mike Michaud of Maine announced Monday he's gay, writing about his personal life in an opinion piece for newspapers in his state. If Michaud wins in 2014 and unseats Republican incumbent Gov. Paul LePage, he would become the first openly gay candidate to be elected governor. The six-term U.S. Congressman's announcement makes him the 8th openly gay member of Congress, with seven in the House and one in the Senate. Michaud, who announced he was running for governor in August, says he made his decision to come out in response to "whisper campaigns, insinuations and push-polls" from his political opponents. "Allow me to save them the trouble with a simple, honest answer: 'Yes I am. But why should it matter?'" he writes. He's not the only "out" candidate running for governor next year. Others include Democratic state Rep. Heather Mizeur in Maryland and independent Todd Giroux in Rhode Island. Both states allow same-sex marriage. While Michaud says his opinion piece may "seem like a big announcement to some people," he adds "it's just a part of who I am, as much as being a third-generation mill worker or a lifelong Mainer." "One thing I do know is that it has nothing to do with my ability to lead the state of Maine," he writes. Michaud first served in the Maine state legislature, before being elected to the U.S. House in 2002. "I write this now merely to let my opponents and the outside interests who fund them know that I am not ashamed of who I am," he says in the opinion piece. "And if seeing someone from my background, in my position openly acknowledge the fact that he's gay makes it a little bit easier for future generations to live their lives openly and without fear, all the better." Some of Michaud's fellow members of Congress welcomed the news on Monday. "My #gaydar missed it, but happy to welcome @RepMikeMichaud to team," Rep. Jarid Polis, D-Colorado, wrote on Twitter. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, wrote on Twitter that she was "so proud to serve with" Michaud and linked to his opinion piece. Same-sex marriage became legal in Maine in December, and the state voted for President Barack Obama over Republican nominee Mitt Romney by a wide margin in November, 56%-41%. The 2014 governor's contest in Maine will be a big race to watch. Nonpartisan political handicapper Stuart Rothenberg rates the race as a "toss up/tilt Democrat," while Charlie Cook, another leading nonpartisan political observer, rates the race as a "toss up." In additional to Michaud, two other Democrats have announced their candidacy, while three independents have pledged to run. LePage, who's become known for his outspoken, sometimes off-color comments, won his election bid in 2010 with 38% of the vote in a crowded gubernatorial race. http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/11/04/maine-gubernatorial-candidate-comes-out-as-gay/

The Queer Irony of Ender's Game Despite the antigay views of Orson Scott Card, his most popular novel is an empowering story for LGBT youth. BY Jase Peeples July 31 2013 6:00 AM ET The Advocate 91 “It’s dreadfully ironic,” says Gavin Hood, director of the forthcoming film adaptation of Orson Scott Card's iconic sci-fi novel Ender's Game. “Orson wrote a book about compassion, and empathy, and yet he himself is struggling to see that his position in real life is really at odds with his art.” When Hood set out to bring the science fiction classic to the big screen, he had no idea the movie would become a flashpoint in the battle for LGBT equality. “Frankly, that’s not unusual,” he continues. “Great art usually rises above the weaknesses and failings of its creators.” Nevertheless, the antigay views of Card, a man who once sat on the board of the National Organization for Marriage, and called for the criminalization of homosexuality, have begun to eclipse any merit his award-winning story may offer to Hollywood’s pantheon of science fiction films. The organization Geeks OUT launched its Skip Ender’s Game campaign in July, urging supporters of LGBT equality to boycott the film when it lands in theatres on November 1, in hopes of sending a message that moviegoers will not tolerate antigay activism. It’s a viewpoint Hood agrees with on a personal level, but he’s quick to point out the controversy now surrounding the film provides an even greater opportunity to positively affect the future of LGBT equality, thanks to the conversation it sparked. “I fully understand the position of those seeking a boycott. I really do,” says Hood. “However, let us have the conversation for what it is, which is that it’s so ironic that the themes and positions in the film are completely the opposite of what its author is now saying. I think that is a healthy and important discussion to have on those terms. I would far rather engage in a debate from an honest point of view, than have it suggest that audiences may stay away.” Those who call for a boycott of Ender’s Game may note that their motivation has more to do with the artist than the art. After all, it’s difficult to support a story from which an antigay activist like Card profits. But the effect of one of Card’s most celebrated works may actually be to advance the message of equality. Long before Card’s personal views on homosexuality made headlines, many LGBT fans who read Ender’s Game were enamored with the story. Not only is the tale a great work of science fiction, but protagonist Ender Wiggin's struggles also closely parallel a number of common experiences had by gay youth. As the third child in his family, Ender is born an outsider in a society with strict population control laws. Though his birth is a special case approved by a government desperate to find the ultimate military leader, he still carries the shame associated with being a “Third” in a culture which enforces a two-child limit. “No one wants a Third anymore,” Colonel Graff says to Ender in the novel. “[Your parents] do love you Ender, but you have to understand what your life has cost them. They were born religious.” Those words written in the first few pages of Ender’s Game would be more than enough to make the main character’s tale resonate with many LGBT people from religious families who have struggled to reconcile their sexuality with the beliefs of their loved ones. But the parallels between Ender’s story and that of gay youth don’t end there. In fact, Ender’s tale of empowerment works best when its young protagonist is interpreted as a gay character. With the exception of his sister, Valentine, Ender shows no affection toward females throughout the book. Though he does build a friendship with Petra, the only girl named at the Battle School he attends, their relationship is purely platonic. Instead, he is most affectionate with his male peers like Alai, who kisses Ender on the cheek after a private exchange between the two boys one night in the barracks, and Bean, whom in turn appears to have deep affection for Ender as well. Additionally, a number of boys in the Battle School who clash with our young hero seem to hone in on Ender’s queer sensibilities by the ways in which they choose to bully him. In one scene, the character Rose de Nose lays naked on a bed as he taunts Ender with an animated, wagging penis displayed on the computer tablet resting across his waist. But are the people behind the film aware of just how easily Ender's Game can be interpreted as a queer story? “No doubt about it,” says producer Roberto Orci. “When I read the book, I was kind of a geeky kid. I was less of an athlete and more of a student. I definitely experienced bullying, and so I can totally imagine how Ender’s journey would relate to anyone in similar circumstances, be it being bullied for the things that I was bullied for, or for who they are. I think the movie reflects that journey as well.” Hood notes that no matter what Card believes, the people who created the upcoming film resonated with what he actually wrote. “The story of Ender is really a young person in search of his identity and in search of his own moral compass,” says Hood. “And so for me, it is so ironic that the writer of the work that has helped so many [young] people, gay and straight, to find empowerment, to feel empowered, to find their own moral compass — it’s very sad that he, himself, is struggling with these issues. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that in struggling with these issues, he wrote a great book. I think what would be far more helpful is if audiences knew that the makers of this film, and the film itself, holds the polar opposite point of view to the current thinking of Orson Scott Card on gay issues.” That self-reflective irony is a sentiment echoed loud and clear by Harrison Ford, who plays the part of Colonel Graff in the upcoming film. “The question of gay marriage is a battle that [Card] lost,” he says. “I think we all know that we’ve all won. That humanity has won.” “Regardless of its author’s clearly bigoted point of view on gay marriage and homosexuality, this book was worth bringing to the screen,” says Hood. “The irony is that we would not be having this conversation if we hadn’t made Ender’s Game, and that's the way you change societies, when you engage in meaningful conversation. So I’m thrilled we’re having this conversation and it really does raise the very tricky question of, ‘Is art something that we can view of independent of its creator?’” “As stressful as this is, it’s achieving, in a twisted way, exactly what we set out to do,” Hood says. “And wouldn’t it be amazing if we could turn this thing into what the book is really about?” http://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/film/2013/07/31/queer-irony-enders-game

Well, why not? Justin Bieber busted sneaking out of brothel By Natalie O’Neill November 2, 2013 | 3:13pm Page Six Justin Bieber is pulled out of a Brazilian brothel in a bed sheet. Photo: AKM-GSI Blame it on Rio! Justin Bieber tried to sneak out of a brothel in Brazil while covered in a sheet Friday — but photographers caught him red-handed. The 19-year-old pop star and a friend spent more than three hours in the popular whorehouse Centauros in Rio de Janeiro — before leaving with two women, sources said. He jumped into the back seat of a car while the women, who covered their faces, were put in SUVs and escorted back to his hotel. Bieber’s security team covered him with a bedsheet bearing the sex den’s logo as he walked out of the establishment — and one of his handlers sprayed photographers with water, demanding they stop snapping, sources said. The fotogs, who had been tipped off about Bieber’s visit to the whorehouse, confirmed it was the singer through his security team. The Biebs was also identified by his gray wraparound wrist tattoo, which is visible in some photos, and his signature sneakers, sources said. Bieber was later kicked out of the hotel for breaking rules, the Brazilian news Web site EGO reported. But another source insisted that Bieber left because hordes of fans mobbed the place, a creating a “security issue.’’ Sources at the hotel claimed he and his crew had for days been partying, doing drugs and disturbing people, according to EGO. The singer, who had been staying at the upscale Copacabana Palace hotel in southern Rio, moved his entourage to a rented mansion in a gated community, the site ¬reported. A spokesman for Bieber declined comment. Bieber’s trip to the brothel comes after he allegedly spent the night with a hooker in Panama last week, the Panamanian newspaper Cronicas reported. A prostitute told the paper that Biebs paid her $500 for sex after the two met at a nightclub in Panama City. He took her back to his hotel room and the two smoked weed, she told the paper. After the sex, he returned her to the club, where she met back up with friends, she said. Fans slammed the star via Twitter on Saturday, saying he’s too caught up in partying and sex. “Justin bieber has officially lost it,” tweeted @Nessa1Glee. Said @zeenieinabottle: “Don’t wanna hear him, see him, nothing. So done. This is absolutely disgusting.” The singer also took to Twitter, denying he hired hookers. “Please stop believing rumors, they are just that. bs rumors, getting tired of it, no truth to them. moving on now. seriously moving on,’’ he tweeted. http://pagesix.com/2013/11/02/justin-bieber-busted-sneaking-out-of-brothel/

Hope you are applying your prescience at Ladbrokes.

Good WaPo review: http://m.washingtonpost.com/opinions/review-double-down-on-the-2012-election-by-mark-halperin-and-john-heilemann/2013/11/01/8bf4f050-3fdd-11e3-a751-f032898f2dbc_story.html "...The two presidents slowly warmed to each other throughout the race. 'He's luckier than a dog with two d----,' Clinton told his friends of Obama."

http://m.us.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304200804579161720691285060

http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/04/politics/double-down-2012-campaign/index.html?c=politics

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/04/cia-doctors-torture-suspected-terrorists-9-11

John Waters: 'Doing the show is an effective anti-Alzheimer's exercise' The film-maker talks about hitchhiking, his one-man show in Liverpool and what his parents thought of Pink Flamingos Saturday 2 November 2013 20.05 EDT 57 comments Tim Teeman William Burroughs called the film director John Waters "the pope of trash". Waters, 67, was born, raised and still lives in Baltimore, Maryland where his close friend Divine, whom he made a star, also grew up. Waters's best-known movies include Pink Flamingos (in which Divine ate dog faeces), Polyester, Hairspray, Cry-Baby and Serial Mom. He is also a writer, artist and art collector and will perform his one-man show, This Filthy World about film, his fascination with true crime, exploitation films and "fashion lunacy" at this year's Homotopia arts festival in Liverpool. Waters is writing a book about hitchhiking across America last year. How was the road trip? I hitchhiked from my front door in Baltimore to my flat in San Francisco. I last hitchhiked when I was 16. It's a bit different when you're 66. Before, I had fantasies about both how brilliant it could be and how horrible. The reality was nowhere near either extreme. The indie band Here We Go Magic tweeted about picking me up in the middle of Ohio. That was so exhilarating: you'd be waiting in the rain for 15 hours for someone to stop, then someone does. Nobody hitchhikes now. I only saw one other hitchhiker the whole time. Do you like performing? Doing the show is an effective anti-Alzheimer's exercise. I talk about running an amusement park, the stars in my movies, drugs, religion, everything. I've never been to Liverpool but it sounds a lot like Baltimore so my kind of town. Liverpool boys are kind of good-looking and the girls are kickass. What kind of boy were you? My mother was Catholic, my father not. I went to Catholic high school. Every form of education failed me. I was trouble. When I was eight or nine in kindergarten, I told stories about this weird kid in class who drew with black crayons. One day my teacher called my parents to inform them: "That's your son." I was creating characters early. People didn't beat me up. I scared them. I hated authority. I could also get people to do things, I was quite the early director. I could make people laugh, enough to get their defences down, and then brainwash them. Were you into drink and drugs? I got arrested for underage drinking at a drive-in. There were all these girls puking from drink outside my car. I wanted to be a beatnik, then a hippie, then a yippie. I took LSD which gave me the courage to be the person I wanted to be. My parents were scared but supportive. They were horrified by my behaviour but my father paid for Pink Flamingos. He never saw it. I paid all the money back. He taught me business. He sold fire-protection equipment and built it into a big business which my niece now runs. I sold shock, which is also a product. I never had a real job except in a bookstore. I still drink. I smoke pot once in a while, but I used to smoke it every day. I was addicted to cigarettes. It's been 3,926 days since I had my last one, although I fell off the wagon recently and had three. Did your parents watch your films? My dad saw A Dirty Shame (2004). I felt bad about my father knowing what "felching" was. He said: "It's funny but I hope I never see it again" a great review from a parent. My mother asked what it was about. I said: "Sexual addiction," and she said: "Maybe we'll die before that one comes out." They liked Hairspray, Cry-Baby and Polyester, the ones that weren't quite as hideous. My mother is 89 and a great anglophile. We called her the Queen of Lutherville (the Baltimore suburb where they lived). How was your coming out? Before I told them I was gay they were scared I was about to say I was a necrophiliac or something. "Do you have to say it to USA Today?" my father said. They were fine about me being on the cover of [gay magazine] Out, just not the publications their friends read. My parents were married for 60 years. They never had a fight. They were the perfect example of a good marriage. Now my mother wants me to get married. She'll say: "Why aren't you married to that nice friend?" who is usually a successful guy. But the successful gay men I know rarely have other successful gay men as boyfriends. They have hustlers. Marriage equality is a hustler's feeding frenzy of gold-diggers. I campaigned for marriage equality in Maryland because I believe we should have the right to it, but I personally don't want to get married. I don't want to imitate the traditions of heterosexual people. I hate weddings: they make me uneasy. Are you single? I have been in love. Whether I'm good at it is another matter. It's a job. I have "regulars" I see, let's put it like that. Living alone is a great luxury. I love going out. Tonight I'm going to this really cool night where young people dance to the music of my generation. I play colleges. I connect to young people: they see me as their slightly insane uncle. You don't have much choice when it comes to ageing: I don't want plastic surgery and end up looking like those people in LA who look like aliens or science projects. You last made a film in 2004. Why? It didn't make any money. They want you to make independent films for half a million bucks, and for me a film would cost around $5m. It's a great time to be a first-time film-maker, but not me. For the last five years I've been trying to get finance for a movie, Fruitcake. Johnny Knoxville is signed up to play the father, and if someone called tomorrow and said "Here's the money", I'd do it. I'm friends with nearly all the stars of my films Kathleen Turner, Ricki Lake, Traci Lords and Johnny Depp. Divine hated being called Glenn [Milstead, his birth name], and didn't respond to anything but Divine which I named him in 1966. I'm so glad he experienced some success before he died [in 1988]. Do you miss directing? I've made 16 movies, it's not like I haven't spoken. I write, my last book was a bestseller. I create art. Thank God I didn't depend on the movie business to make a living. This Christmas I'll tour my show to 15 US cities. I'd love to write a novel. I'm proud I've been able to do all this, happy to work in my boxer shorts and T-shirt every day. I'm very sharp in the morning and get dumber as the day goes on. John Waters performs This Filthy World on Friday at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall as part of Homotopia's 10th birthday celebrations http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/nov/03/interview-john-waters-pink-flamingos-liverpool

I am a former escort. Trust me, criminalising prostitution doesn't helpRhode Island and rural Nevada used to offer protections for adult sex workers. Now it's illegal in RI and more dangerous for all Matthew Lawrence theguardian.com, Sunday 3 November 2013 07.30 EST Today marks an interesting anniversary in Rhode Island. On 3 November 2009, Governor Donald Carcieri signed a bill criminalizing indoor prostitution and overturning a 29-year-old statute which allowed consenting adults to conduct sexual transactions for money behind closed doors. While some rural counties of Nevada allow brothels, Rhode Island laws were more liberal, with escorts working legally in homes, hotel rooms, and spas located in cities and towns across the Ocean State. Rhode Island wasn't a lawless free-for-all, as some anti-prostitution advocates now contend. Pimping – sexual exploitation for the financial benefit of a third party – has always been a felony, and anti-trafficking laws were already in place to guard against forced prostitution. Streetwalking, a public nuisance and a far riskier type of sex work, was considered a misdemeanor, and minors already had legal protection thanks to pre-existing laws pertaining to statutory rape, sexual assault, and coercion. In reality, the passage of the 2009 anti-prostitution law only affected adult sex workers who were either self-employed or working in spas of their own free will. So what was the problem? Most people thought there wasn't one. Anti-prostitution bills had been introduced in the state legislature every year since 2005, unceremoniously fizzling out each time. In 2009, a local television reporter Bill Rappleye canceled a report on the anti-prostitution bill – intended to include comments from irate viewers who visited his blog – after it became clear that most people were ambivalent about the legislation. Rappleye later blogged wistfully that it "doesn't seem like a lot of [viewers] are worried about the exploitation of women here". His equation of prostitution with exploitation of women is a common one, though my own experience as a gay male sex worker runs counter to that misconception. I escorted briefly after college, and several friends – some in graduate school, some with careers – also turned to prostitution for extra cash. None of us felt exploited; we were self-employed men and women, working where and when we wanted. We advertised online and charged what we considered reasonable rates. Rhode Island traditionally has among the highest unemployment rates in the nation, and escorting provided a convenient way for us to manage hefty student loan bills. In one hour with a client I made as much money as I made in a whole week at my part-time retail job; I may have felt financially exploited, but for reasons completely unrelated to sex work. The crusade for criminalization was spearheaded by Donna M Hughes, a socially conservative women's studies professor who founded the organization Citizens Against Trafficking specifically to gather support around this legislation. She and Melanie Shapiro, one of her undergraduate students, led the frenzied charge with a series of emotional but factually challenged newsletters (for example, blaming "spa-brothels" – their own term – for gang stabbings at local nightclubs). Their "organization" seems to have dissolved (or at least stopped doing much) at some point in 2011, making it clear that trafficking was never their real concern. Former Representative Joanne Giannini, who sponsored all five anti-prostitution bills, recently wrote an editorial praising her own legislation with respect to a lurid case involving a Boston man who allegedly kidnapped two Massachusetts teenagers and held them captive in Providence; he is also accused of sexually assaulting one of them. It's sad that someone can equate the behavior of consenting adults with allegations of kidnapping and statutory rape. I testified in opposition to the anti-prostitution bill, presenting myself as a concerned citizen, which I was, and not as a retired sex worker. Hughes, Shapiro, and state police officers favored criminalization; those opposed were a more motley crew, including everyone from professional sex educator Megan Andelloux to Lightning Bolt drummer Brian Chippendale. It probably looked like the "good guys" versus the lewd ones, but that's not a fair characterization. We tried to show how this bill would make things more dangerous. And that's exactly what has happened. Bella Robinson, an escort affiliated with sex workers rights group COYOTE, moved to Rhode Island specifically for the legal protection here. "I've never been more terrified than when I had that SWAT team bust through my door," she says in reference to an earlier arrest at a New Jersey home. Within four hours I pled guilty. The judge told me that I'd go to jail unless I paid $310 a month for a year. In other words he was essentially telling me to go out and turn some more tricks to pay the court. Indoor prostitution hasn't gone anywhere. A spa – easily found on several adult review sites – currently operates near the Providence Journal building on a busy thoroughfare in downtown Providence. And a quick search of popular escort sites reveals both male and female escorts working in the Ocean State, as they do in every other state where prostitution is illegal. The main difference now is that they have no protection. One case from early 2009 illustrates why I think criminalization was such a bad idea. A young attorney from North Providence was moonlighting as an escort, and one evening she was attacked at knifepoint by an unstable client. Knowing that she had the protection of the law, this woman – whose name I don't use to respect her own wishes – called the police and the man was swiftly apprehended. Had this incident happened a few months later, she might have never made that call and her appalling attacker might never have been caught. "Escorts from across the country call me for advice", Robinson says. "And I only have one thing to really tell them: do not call the cops. No matter what." http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/03/rhode-island-indoor-prostitution-now-illegal

An old man calls his son and says, "Listen, your mother and I are getting divorced. Forty-five years of misery is enough." "Dad, what are you talking about?" the son screams. “We can't stand the sight of each other any longer,” he says. "I'm sick of her face, and I'm sick of talking about this, so call your sister and tell her," and he hangs up. Now, the son is worried. He calls his sister. She says, "Like hell they’re getting divorced!" She calls their father immediately. "You’re not getting divorced! Don't do another thing. The two of us are flying home tomorrow to talk about this. Until then, don't call a lawyer, don't file a paper. DO YOU HEAR ME?” She hangs up the phone. The old man turns to his wife and says, "Okay, they’re both coming for Christmas and paying their own airfares."

When you invite your welder friend over and get him drunk before having him fix your downspout...

A lesson my divorce outcome ought to have taught me already.

Ah! As I just posted in the Joke thread...

Certainly when it passes from our wallet to theirs.

Sometimes the only thing to do...