Thank you, MoveOn.org and Facebook.Com

Dear Facebook MasterMinds and Bottom Line Decisionmakers,

Many thanks from this Gulf Coast Facebook member for respecting my rights to privacy. All of us who protested the BEACON INVASION felt somewhat as if we were wearing a straight jacket, strapped onto a hospital operating table, and being prepped for a colonoscopy without the sedatives or vaseline. You get the picture!

I feel sure you can imagine the sigh of relief all of us are breathing today.

With affection,
Lovelace Cook
GYPSY QUEEN CAB

Facebook Beacon will not shine on the Gypsy Queen Cab!

Don't you just love the immediacy of people taking action! This great NYT article just about says it all. And, of course I signed the MoveOn.org petition. No Facebook Beacon is gonna shine on this Gypsy Queen Cab's adventures online.

Facebook capitulates...High Five, Fellow Facers

Y'all, am I ever relieved to know that there is strength in unity. Thank you, Saul Alensky. Facebook listened to our protests...everybody is selling out for the big bucks! Thank God, those of us who keep up with the giants of social media got wind of what was happening and spread the word. If that doesn't confirm the power of the people, I don't know what does! Amen.

No Carbon Emissions Here, Folks!

So, we went into the shop for a while...maybe longer. In a nanosecond the world changes dramatically. Imagine how the world looks now to the new and revised Gypsy Queen Cab!

Stay posted, people.

AT&T To Kill Cingular Brand!?@*$!!

Tell me it ain't so! I leap on the cyber highway to AdAge.com, straight from the Haight...well, San Francisco, and learn that AT&T has plans to get rid of the inimitable little orange Cingular brand man in 2007. Noooo! That little brand represents cutting edge technology, at least to this Gypsy Queen Cab.

I agree with the folks at AdAge and the branding guru quoted in the article: "To give up Cingular is a mistake," especially in favor of AT&T, "my father's brand of telephony," said Jonathan Asher, president, Dragon Rouge USA, a branding and design consultancy.

Sometimes this Gypsy Queen thinks folks are just plain dumb!

Sixteen...and Bulletproof

Detours on life's highway took the Gypsy Queen Cab back to school...oh, lawd, teaching 6th, 7th and 8th graders in a drug prevention program. So many miles down that road now, and so many eye-opening experiences.

Friday night, just 6:30 pm, what were they thinking? The 16-year-old girl driving drunk down County Road 65? Her passengers, another 16-year-old girl and her 15-year-old sister, one of my students. The elder sister died when she was ejected from the car after it left the road. Her younger sister, my student, was sent by life-flight to Sacred Heart Hospital and her arm was amputated.

Last quarter we did role-playing about what to do if someone was driving drunk and they were in the car. It wasn't real in the classroom, I suppose. Maybe a few kids heard the message. It's too late for the 16-year-old who died on Friday night. Today, I will be back in classes with the 6th graders, and her youngest brother will be there. It is so sad, and so close to home.

Katrina, Rita, Wilma & Ivan Spawned... Contractors from Hell

So you think it isn't true? In the wake of devastation on the southern coasts came...the predators. People without conscience. Pathological individuals who go for the jugglar when they smell weakness. The worst of these predators are the contractors who flood into the storm-damaged communities and suck the very life blood from those who can afford to lose nothing more.

Dodging Dennis. Tales from the Storm

There's nothing like a Cat 4 hurricane bearing down at 146 mph, churning through the gumbo in the Gulf, headed straight for the shores of Mobile Bay, to get my attention. How does one prepare for such a wonder of nature?

On Friday, July 8, folks were boarding up their houses, buying out batteries and tarps at Home Depot, and clearing the shelves of peanut butter and snack foods at WalMart here on the Eastern Shore. I know first hand, because I watched the frenzy. The Gypsy Queen Cab got back on the road after a hiatus of months in storage--more on that later.

First stop was Home Depot where a power drill was on the list of must-haves. Who can just buy a power drill when there are packages of many power tools? The Riobi All-In-One kit with 18Volt battery powered everything from the power drill to a chain saw to a circular saw suddenly became a MUST-HAVE. Every D-Cell and C-Cell battery was ripped from the shelves; every generator sold. I bought the power tool kit so that I could start remedying the problems my contractor left, provided Dennis the Menace didn't take my little house and the Gypsy Queen Cab's home to Kansas or somewhere out in the Gumbo of the Gulf.

Following the shopping frenzy on Friday, Saturday started with a flap and a scramble. Powered up those batteries Friday night. Hired the neighborhood kids, ages 12 and 13, to move all the plants inside, to move all the construction debris under the house, and the mow the lawn. Thing is, those kids are sweet, but none too bright. Short term memory problems and distractions like the cats and the Wolf Dog...yes, I adopted orphaned Angel (Karen Cater's wolf dog)...and my white German Shepherd puppy made it really tough for the boys to get the job done without a few wrinkles. Major supplies of lemonade, hefty doses of mosquito spray, bandaids for blisters, and anti-itch medicines, along with cup after cup of ice water, were necessary along with strict supervision of everything those little rascals touched.

By Saturday night, the Gypsy Queen Cab begged to rest and was in a deep sleep, bookended by kitties Midnight and Lily, when the phone rang and Tampa EMA Official/high school friend Steve called, "You ARE evacuating." Well, no, we weren't. He scolded me and basically said, "Sweetheart, it's been nice knowing you." Then the reverse 9-1-1 computer phone calls came interrupted what little sleep I could get through the night, "You are putting your family in danger. Evacuate now." No, I am going to try to sleep.

More later on Sunday...the Day Dennis hit the Gulf Coast

Diamonds and Sex...Oooh, la la. It ain't what you think, folks!

It's two for the road.

Suzanne Hudson and Joe Formichella on book tour and in a quest for the perfect enchilada, but you have to visit the blog The Sex and Diamonds Book Tour to find out about the new cool!

They quote MacAdam/Cage publisher David Poindexter, "What's life without a little trepidation?" And, those road warriors are keeping us all on pins and needles as we wait for them to post their adventures on the road.

Suzanne's new novel In the Dark of the Moon and Joe's novel Here's to You, Jackie Robinson: The Legend of the Prichard Mohawks are receiving the rave reviews they both deserve.

Here's a blurb from Joyce Dixon's Southern Scribe about the launch of their new books. You can buy their books through Over The Transom bookstore in Fairhope, Alabama.

Welcome to the blogosphere, Martin Lanaux!

There's nothing better than introducing a grand person to the world of blog...so, welcome to the virtual world Martin Lanaux, Bookseller.

The Gypsy Queen Cab has talked about Over The Transom bookstore and Martin. Now Martin has joined the ranks of the literary wunderkind and their kinfolk. And, it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood on the bay.

On the Breath of Dawn

This afternoon at the Gulf we said our goodbyes to Karen Cater. Her nineteen year-old son Reid did his mama proud and told us all, "If my mother had her way, we'd all be dancing in the aisles, clapping and singing, 'You Can't Always Get What You Want'..." Of course she'd want the Rolling Stones. It would figure that Karen would take her last bow on Mardi Gras day. We wept, but Reid told us that wasn't what Karen would have wanted.

So we reminisced about our own experiences with the globe-trotting photographer and actress. Photographs of Karen brought back memories...a flower child in New York City, an actress, a very pregnant mom in a string bikini...ooh la la Karen

If you ran in off-Broadway theater circles in New York you may have met her. If you were in children's theater in Gulf Shores, or Chicago, or Fairhope, you may have met her. You certainly would never forget her if you heard her husky laugh and wonderful rich voice. Karen was a friend who gave as good as she got. She always looked like a gypsy floating into rooms waving a cigarette and toasting with a glass of wine. Her wolf, ancient and shaggy and white, followed her with his eyes when he grew too old and tired to be her shadow. The rest of us followed her lead as if she were the Pied Piper.

Dance with the angels, Karen.

Dimming the lights on Broadway

Someone great and grand, and larger than life, left life yesterday.

Karen Cater choose Mardi Gras day to take her final bow on this great stage where she lived life to the fullest. With contagious enthusiasm, kicking her shoes off while she danced on tabletops, Karen wove magic in her life and in the lives of all she touched.

We will miss you, Karen. Dream with the angels.

Come day, go day, God send Sunday

When the Gypsy Queen Cab toured the Blue Ridge Mountains and dropped in on Mr. Jefferson's University in Charlottesville for a few years, a favored English professor and his wife produced a documentary film...Come day, go day, God send Sunday. The title resonated and from time to time in the workaday world, this cab hears the lament and refrain from folks who toil in the corporate fields--another form of slavery.

A short history lecture: the expression, and the documentary title, was one that was voiced by African-Americans who worked in low paying, or no-paying, back breaking jobs from Monday through Friday, and who received little, if any, respect from their white bosses. On Sunday, those same janitors and house keepers and yard men became deacons and elders and preachers in their churches. On Sunday, those hard working individuals found respect, an opportunity to fortify themselves spiritually for the coming work week.

The Gypsy Queen Cab rarely tours a political landscape, but on this eve it somehow seems appropriate.

Photos from the Hair Ball at Beauty and the Book

News Flash, Gypsy Queen fans! The photos from the Hair Ball are available for viewing on the Beauty and the Book website. Check out the pix and see if you can find mystery writer Carolyn Haines! Take a close look at some other photos, and you'll see Beauty and the Book owner Kathy Patrick singing with the inimitable Marshall Chapman.

Kathy and I share a passion for Michael Morris's books...and if you haven't read them, well just rush right out and buy them. Call the cab for a lift if you don't have transportation to your local independent bookstore! Michael recently published Live Like You Were Dying, which followed Slow Way Home. His first novel A Place Called Wiregrass is a story with a big heart...just like Michael. And, all his stories have heart.

And Baby Makes...A Designer's Dreams Come True!

Once upon a time, not too many years ago, a young Martin Lanaux--now proprietor of the rare and used books at Over The Transom Bookstore--lived on Bayview with his young bride Gina and a baby girl...

But that was then, and this is now...Martin still has his lovely bride Gina, and two beautiful daughters. Martin knows everyone on the bay and he tells me that Javis Davis on Church Street is one of the best kept secrets in town. The leader in custom bedding for infants and children features "Custom-made bedding at ready-made prices!" What a treat is in store for those who make an appointment to visit and create sweet dreams for their own children or grandchildren. Some folks visit in person, while others from all parts of the country make a virtual tour to buy Mary Lou Cothran's custom designs.

The gypsy queen cab may need to order some toile pillows for the back seat just to add a touch of that je ne sais quoi.

Gee's Bend and the Alabama Shakespeare Festival

The Alabama Shakespeare Festival's Southern Writers' Project Festival of New Plays starts in Montgomery on Friday, Feb. 4 and goes through Sunday, Feb. 6th. For those maskers who might enjoy dramatic diversion that doesn't take place in the streets of Mobile, why not schedule a trip to ASF's Southern Writers' Project and meet, among others, Sena Jeter Naslund, author of two extraordinary novels Ahab's Wife and Four Spirits.

Oh, and this gypsy queen cab just loves to share good news...especially when sworn to secrecy before the announcement: Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder was awarded a Southern Writers' Project commission to develop a play about Gee's Bend! That red-headed dynamo just flew in town from the other coast (Los Angeles) and is on her way to Montgomery right this minute.

And, friends on the bay, it goes without saying that Alabama Writers' Forum Executive Director Jeanie Thompson will be hosting her Spalding buddies--including Sena--for some of the weekend's activities. If the Gypsy Queen Cab ever gets down off the cinder blocks in the barn, we'll share an up close and personal account of the writers, actors, and readings.

Night of the Wolf Moon

The January moon was extraordinary in the night sky over the bay on the 25th. The full Wolf Moon sends those who cherish freedom singing and dancing. So it was a day filled with magic for the Gypsy Queen Cab.

Here' s an excerpt from the poem "Luna" (copyright C.S. Friedman--this may not be reproduced, even electronically, without the poet's permission which I did receive for this post.) The poem captures the night:


Wolf’s lover, Gaia’s guardian
Rides the tides of night’s magic
And shares music with the ones
Who run for love of freedom:
Wolf’s Moon

Copyright C.S. Friedman

Quoted with permission

Over The Transom...Jim Gilbert's Night in the Spotlight

The day's rain didn't dampen spirits at Over The Transom last Thursday evening where friends and writers gathered to celebrate Jim Gilbert's appointment as Editor-in-Chief of River City Publishing in Montgomery. Those of us who live down here on the bay will miss quiet Jim and his wry sense of humor.

A Posturing of Fools

Greetings from the bay, and a special hello to Miss Charlotte who is on R & R in Key West. Her husband, author Brewster Milton Robertson, flew back to the third coast for a special reading of his new novel A Posturing of Fools. Now he's heading back down to the Keys to watch sunsets with his beloved. Miss Charlotte says this Gypsy Queen Cab needs to be driving down Duval Street for R & R as well. You know that's right!

Arts & Artists...Bound for New York

Good morning!

It's foggy here on the bay and visibility is limited. However, the Gypsy Queen Cab is gearing up for a road trip to NYC in April when American artist Nall, his wife Tuscia, and Alabama Writers' Forum Executive Director Jeanie Thompson visit 55 Water Street downtown with an incredible lineup of Alabama artists and their work.

For those in the know, 55 Water Street is home to peregrine falcons , and while the falcons are not on live cam at the moment, this Gypsy Queen Cab promises to divulge more later about rare birds, birds of prey, and folks who feather their nests in downtown Manhattan.