Long Talk with Phil this Morning

The eleven hour time zone difference is just perfect for long cozy chats, he settling down of an chilly spring evening there, moi rising here of a tropical summer morning.  We talked about Utrecht, where he has recently been visiting, its founding in the 7th century, its being where the famous treaty that ended the War of the Spanish Succession was signed (in 1713).  Then idly allowing our thoughts to wander we harked back to Archbishop Hunthausen of Seattle in the early 80's, and curiously while we chatted I googled Hunthausen--and lo! the person who did him in (virtually got him excommunicated) was none other than that nasty old villain, then Cardinal, Ratzinger, with that infamous homophobic screed on the doctrine of the faith.  Well, well, well.  Then we talked about Margaret Fuller's bisexuality, Thoreau's and Whitman's gayness, and the abomination of Jeffrey Weeks'  Foucauldian social constructionism, and Phil's rising career in popular German rock/light opera, singing in the light/rock opera company of the talented and prolific young composer Joachim (Joschi) Kottmann.   I've googled him and he's definitely a Light, or a Presence, in the Deutsche Kunst of Today.   I couldn't be prouder of the (not so young any more) Phil Phillips if I'd given birth to him myself.